The  Divine  Life  In  Man 


The  Divine  Life  In  Man 


BnD  ®tber  Sermons 


BY 


REV  FREDERICK  A  NOBLE     D  D 

I!asto7-   Union  Park  Congregational  CInircli   Chicago 


FLEMING  H  REVELL  COMPANY 

New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Publishers  of  Evangelical  Literature 


Copyright  1895,  by  Fleming  H.  Revell  Company. 


TO  THE  MEMORY  OF  ONE 

LOVING   AND    BELOVED 

WHO  FOR  FOUR  AND  THIRTY  YEARS  MADE  MY 

HOME     SWEET     WITH     HER     GRACIOUS     PRESENCE 

AND    WHO    SHARED    WITH    ME    THE    BURDENS 

AND  JOYS  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 

LUCY  PERRY  NOBLE 

THIS    VOLUME 
IS  TENDERLY  AND  REVERENTLY    DEDICATED 


"Upon  thy  brow 
A  zvreath  whose  floivers  no  earthly  soil  have  known, 
Woven  of  the  beatittcdes.' 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

I.  The  Divine  Life  in  Man 7 

And  God  created  man  in  His  own  image,     Gen.  i :  27. 

That  through  these  ye  may  become  partakers  of  the  divine  na- 
ture.    2  Peter  1:4. 

Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven.     Matt.  6:9. 

The  Spirit  himself  beareth  witness  with  our  spirit,  that  we  are 
children  of  God.     Rom,  8:  16. 

I  am  the  ....  Life.     John  14:6. 

I  came  that  they  may  have  life,  and  may  have  it  abundantly, 
John  10:  10. 

Till  we  all  attain  unto  ....  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  full- 
ness of  Christ.     Eph.  4:  13. 

II.  Cheist  the  Yea  of  God , 32 

In  Him  is  yea.     2  Corinthians  i:  19. 

III.  Awaking  to  Righteousness 51 

Awake  up  righteously  and  sin  not;  for  some  have  no  knowledge 
of  God.     I  Cor.  15  :  34. 

IV.  Mystery  in  the  New  Birth 70 

How  can  these  things  be?     John  3 :  g. 

V.  Spiritual  Capital. 93 

For  whosoever  hath,  to  him  shall  be  given,  and  he  shall  have 
abundance;  but  whosoever  hath  not,  from  him  shall  be  taken 
away  even  that  which  he  hath       Matt.  13:  12. 

VI.  Our  Insufficiency  Made  Sufficient  in  God..  113 

Who  is  sufficient  for  these  things?     2  Cor.  2 :  16. 
Our  sufficiency  is  from  God.     2  Cor.  3  :  5. 
5 


6  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

VII.  Faith  and  Works 130 

For  as  the  body  apart  from  the  spirit  is  dead,  even  so  faith  apart 
from  works  is  dead,     James  2  :  26, 

VIII.  A  Difference  Between  Them. 149 

But  all  the  children  of  Israel  had  light  in  their  dwellings. 
Exodus  lo:  23. 

IX.  The  Receptive  Mind 167 

For  indeed  we  have  had  good  tidings  preached  unto  us,  even  as 
also  they;  but  the  word  of  hearing  did  not  profit  them,  because 
they  were  not  united  by  faith  with  them  that  heard.   Heb.  4:  2. 

X.  Bad  Mothers 18G 

For  his  mother  was  his  counsellor  to  do  wickedly.   2  Chron    22:  3. 

XI.  The  Bible  in  the  Home 200 

And  these  words,  which  I  command  thee  this  day,  shall  be  upon 
thine  heart;  and  thou  shalt  teach  them  diligently  unto  thy  chil- 
dren, and  shalt  talk  of  them  when  thou  sittest  in  thine  house, 
and  when  thou  walkest  by  the  way,  and  when  thou  liest  down 
and  Vifhen  thou  risest  up.     Deut   6 :  6-7 

XII.  Christianity  in  the  Light  of    the    Parlia- 

ment of  Religions 221 

And  in  none  other  is  there  salvation;  for  neither  is  there  any 
other  name  under  heaven,  that  is  iven  among  men,  wherein 
we  must  be  saved.     Acts  4  :  12. 

XIII.  The  Divine  Interest  Personal  to  Each  of 

Us 287 

Who  loved  me  and  gave  himself  up  for  me.     Gal.  2:  20. 

Now  Jesus  loved  Martha,  and  her  sister,  and  Lazarus.   John  11:  5. 

XIV.  Bringing  Men  to  God 256 

Because  Christ  also  suffered  for  sins  once,  the  righteous  for  the 
unrighteous,  that  He  might  bring  us    to  God.      i  Peter  3:  18 

XV.  The  Increasing  Christ 288 

He  must  increase.     John  3 :  30. 


THE  DIVINE  LIFE  IN  MAN. 

And  God  created  man  in  His  oivn  image.      Gen.  i :  2J. 

That  through  these  ye  may  become  partakers  of  the  divine 
nature.     2  Peter  i :  4, 

Otir  Father  7vhich  art  in  heaven.     Matt.  6:  g. 

The  Spirit  himself  beareth  witness  tviih  our  spirit,  that 
■we  are  children  of  God.     Rom.  8:  16. 

I  am the  Life,    fohn  14:  6. 

I  came  that  they  may  have  life,  and  may  have  it  abun- 
dantly.   John  10:  10. 

Till  we  all  attain  unto .  . .  .the  measttre  of  the  stature 
of  the  fullness  of  Christ.     Eph.  4:  ij. 

On  the  basis  and  warrant  of  these  very  remarkable 
scriptures  it  is  my  purpose  to  say  something  this 
morning  concerning    The  Divine  Life  in  Man. 

The  conception  of  the  possibility  of  a  divine  life  in 
man  is  the  highest  tribute  which  can  be  paid  to  the 
dignity  of  human  nature.  According  to  this  con- 
ception man  is  great,  not  merely  because  he  is 
rational, endowed  with  the  faculties  of  reason  and  con- 
science,but  because  his  rationality  has  living  connec- 
tion and  kinship  with  the  Supreme  Rationality  of  the 
universe.  This  conception,  too,  which  holds  in  it 
such  tribute  to  the  dignity  of  human  nature,  and 
which  implies  so  many  other  qualities  of  the  highest 
significance,  is  a  fact  which  was  realized  in  the  orig- 
inal creation  of  man,  and  which  is  realized   anew  as 

7 


8  THE  DIVINE  LIFE  IN  MAN 

often  as  any  soul  comes  under  the  regenerating 
power  of  the  gospel  and  is  born    into   the   kingdom. 

This  is  what  is  brought  out  with  an  almost  start- 
ling distinctness  in  the  group  of  passages  standing  at 
the  head  of  this  discourse.  Man,  like  God,  is  per- 
sonal and  spiritual.  He  has  the  source  of  his  being 
in  God.  He  has  come  into  life  in  virtue  of  the 
breath  of  God  in  his  soul.  He  has  a  certain  intel- 
lectual and  moral  likeness  to  God;  and  by  cultivation 
and  discipline  this  likeness  may  be  advanced  till  his 
thought  and  will  reflect,  in  some  measure,  the  thought 
and  will  of  God,  and  all  his  movements  and  desires 
are  in  the  direction  of  God.  He  may  yield  his  whole 
nature— all  his  powers  and  faculties — up  to  the  guid- 
ance of  God,  and  the  current  of  an  exalted  fellow- 
ship may  flow  back  and  forth  between  his  heart  and 
the  heart  of  God.  Having  fallen  out  of  this  fellow- 
ship, and  lost  this  divine  life,  through  sin,  he  may 
yet  find  it  again  through  faith  in  the  Son  of  God, 
who  came  into  the  world  for  the  express  purpose  of 
renewing  men  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  and  re- 
storing the  marred  image  in  which  they  were  made. 
He  may  have  inward  witness  that  God  is  his  Father, 
and  that  he  is  God's  child.  He  may  know  and  en- 
joy God. 

These  are  general  statements  covering  the  case. 
The  further  development  of  the  subject  will  be  pro- 
moted best  by  asking  two  or  three  questions. 

I.  What  is  the  standard  and  type  of  this  divine 
life  in  man? 


THE  DIVINE  LIFE  IN  MAN  0 

Or  to  put  the  same  question  in  another  form,  were 
one  to  realize  this  divine  life  in  anything  like   com- 
pleteness  what   manner   of  man  would  he  be?     The 
answer  is  at  hand  and  has  already  been  given  in  the 
passage  in  which  the  great  Apostle  identifies  loftiest 
aspirations  and  highest  attainments  with  the  measure 
of  the  fullness  of  the  stature  of  Christ.    He  would  be 
a  man  after  the  pattern  of  Christ.     He  would  be  pure 
like  Christ,  but  like  Christ  he  would  be  grieved  and 
indignant  at  the  sight  of  wrong.      He  would  be  wise 
and  pertinent  in  all  his  actions  to  times  and    seasons 
and   duties   like   Christ.      He   would   be   loving  and 
gentle  like  Christ.    He  would  be  open  to  all  heavenl}- 
communications  and  heavenly  fellowships  like  Christ. 
He  would  be  in  sympathy  with  the  sorrows  and  woes 
of  humanity  like  Christ.      He  would  be    vicarious  in 
the  temper  of  his  mind,  and  would  rejoice  in  nothing 
so  much  as  in  putting  his  shoulder  under  the  burdens 
of   the    over-burdened,  and  in    being  in  every  way 
helpful  like  Christ.    Like  Christ  he  would  walk  with 
God,  and  we  should  see  once    more — what  was  seen 
by  all  eyes  which   had   any  spiritual  vision  in    them 
when  the  Divine  Man  was  walking    the  ways  of  this 
dusty  earth  in  Palestine — a  man  pressing  his  steps  on 
through  life  with  one  hand  locked  in  the  hand  of  the 
Father  and  the   other    locked  in  the  hand  of  such  of 
his   fellow-creatures   as   might  be  in  special  need    of 
guidance  and  strength.     He  would  be  a  man  at  once 
so  sweet  and  lofty,  so  human    and  so  heavenlj',  that 
his  life  would  go  far  toward   interpreting  to   us    the 
profound  meaning  of  the  incarnation. 


10  THE  DIVINE  LIFE  IN  MAN 

But  in  getting  up  into  this  attainment  of  the  meas- 
ure of  the  stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ,  or — what 
is  the  same  thing — the  realization  of  a  life  which 
moves  forward  on  the  line  of  the  life  of  Christ,  and 
of  a  character  which  is  built  up  on  the  model  of  the 
character  of  Christ,  we  get  up  also  into  the  attain- 
ment and  realization  of  all  the  other  promises  and 
possibilities  set  before  us  in  the  passages  under  re- 
view. 

The  image  of  God  in  which  man  was  made  is 
brought  out  and  restored.  For  what  is  this  image 
and  what  does  the  possession  of  it  imply?  Person- 
ality of  being, — not  absorption  in  the  mass  of  things, 
but  personality,  spirituality,  or  a  soul  to  master  mat- 
ter and  use  it  for  noble  ends;  mind  to  see  and  ap- 
prehend truth ;  moral  sense  to  distinguish  between 
right  and  wrong;  spontaneous  approval  of  holiness; 
and  capacity  to  make  known  our  thoughts  and  de- 
sires to  God,  and  to  receive  from  God  knowledge 
and  strength  and  joy.  But  to  enumerate  these  ele- 
ments which  enter  into  the  original  likeness  of  man 
to  God  is  simply  to  describe  Jesus  Christ  in  the  per- 
fection of  His  humanity.  To  see  Him  is  to  see  one 
in  whom  this  likeness  is  brought  out  with  an  absolute 
accuracy.  To  be  a  man  after  the  type  of  Jesus  Christ 
is  to  be  a  man  after  the  primary  and  ideal  conception 
of  man. 

By  the  same  process,  and  to  the  same  extent,  we 
become  partakers  of  the  divine  nature.  These  are 
marvelous  words  which  have  just  been  on  our  lips, — 


THE  DIVINE  LIFE  IN  MAN  \\ 

made    in    the     image     of    God.      So,    too,    are    the 
words  of  Peter    marvelous   when   he   speaks  of    our 
becoming  partakers  of  the  divine  nature:   "Whereby 
He  hath  granted  unto  us  His  precious  and  exceeding 
great  promises;  that  through   these  ye  may    become 
partakers  of  the  divine  nature,  having  escaped    from 
the  corruption  that  is  in  the  vs'orld  by  lust."     There 
is  a  possible  union  of  the  soul  with  God  in  love    and 
view   and  'aim    so   close,  that   what   God  is    may  be 
known,  in  part  at  least,  from  what  is  seen  and  felt  of 
Him  in  the  soul.      It  was  on  the  basis  of  this  sublime 
possibility  that  our  Lord  offered  the  prayer:     "That 
they  may  all  be  one;  even  as  thou,  Father,  art  in  me, 
and  I  in  thee,  that  they  also  may  be  in  us.''''      This  is 
to  come  into  such  full  and  joyous   identification   with 
God  in  all  the  outgoings  of  His  life  that  the  pulse  of 
thought  and  purpose  which   beats  in  Him    has   re- 
sponse in   the   pulse  of  thought  and   purpose    which 
beats  in  the  soul.      It  is  to   think   with    God;  it  is  to 
feel  with    God;  it  is  to  will  with  God.      It  is  to  love 
what  God  loves  and  hate  what  God  hates,  and  throw 
all  one's  energies  on  the  side  of   His    righteousness. 
Once   more,  however,  just   simply  to  state  what  it  is 
to  be  a  partaker  of  the  divine  nature   is   to   set    forth 
Christ.   To  look  on  Christ  is  to  behold  a  living  illus- 
tration of  this  higfh  achievement.     To  be  like  Christ 
is  to  share  with    Him  in    His    partakership  in  the  di- 
vine nature. 

We  come  also  into  a  sense  of  sonship.      Christ  has 
put  into  our  mouths  the  great  words:  "Our  Father." 


12  THE  DIVINE  LIFE  IN  MAN 

There  is  no  higher  height  of  distinction  to  which  we 
can  climb.  For  if  God  be  our  Father,  then  are  we 
God's  children.  His  blood  is  in  our  veins.  His 
characteristics  mark  us.  His  greatness  and  good- 
ness and  love  and  majesty  and  power  and  purity  be- 
come to  us  the  ground  of  a  peculiar  joy.  His  glory 
will  He  not  give  to  another,  but  His  children  are 
born  into  a  portion  in  it.  To  be  able  to  say  "Our 
Father"  in  the  faith  and  sincerity  and  love  in  which 
Jesus  wishes  us  to  say  the  words  is  to  take  our  place 
in  thefamil}'  immortal  and  blessed,  whose  head  is  God, 
the  Divine  Father,  and  whose  Elder  Brother  is  the 
Son  of  God,  and  whose  glad  members  are  made  up, 
in  part,  of  those  who  have  kept  their  first  estate,  and, 
in  part,  of  those  who  have  been  redeemed  by  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world.  This,  again,  is  all  secured  in  the  attainment 
of  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ. 
To  reach  this  fullness  is  to  awaken  in  the  soul  a  deep 
and  tender  and  abiding  sense  of  sonship.  It  no 
longer  seems  a  thing  incongruous  to  speak  of  God  as 
our  Father,  and  of  ourselves  as  His  children;  but  we 
fall  into  the  use  of  these  terms,  and  into  the  relation- 
ship implied  in  them,  as  easily  and  naturally  as  sons 
and  daughters  who  have  been  born  into  sweet  earthly 
homes  fall  into  the  use  of  them.  God  is  our  Creator 
still,  and  we  are  His  creatures?  Yes,  but  we  are 
more, — we  are  children.  God  is  our  Sovereign  still, 
and  we  are  His  subjects  and  owe  Him  obedience? 
Yes;  but  we  are  more, — we  are    children.     This  is 


THE  DIVINE  I.IEE  IN  MAN  13 

what  He  himself  in  His  Word  delights  to  tell  us. 
"Ye  received  the  Spirit  of  adoption,  whereby  we 
cry:  Abba,  Father.  The  Spirit  himself  beareth 
witness  with  our  spirit,  that  we  are  children  of  God; 
and  if  children,  then  heirs;  heirs  of  God  and  joint 
heirs  with  Christ." 

To  reach,  then,  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the 
fullness  of  Christ  is  to  reach  it  all.  It  is  to  reach 
such  likeness  to  God  in  thought  and  character  as  is 
implied  in  being  made  in  the  image  of  God.  It  is  to 
reach  the  intimate  and  sacred  fellowship  with  God 
naturally  suggested  when  we  speak  of  becoming  a 
p;irtaker  of  the  divine  nature.  It  is  to  reach  the  high 
place  where  we  can  stand  up  and  exclaim  in  terms 
of  exultation:  "Now  we  are  children  of  God."  The 
standard  and  type  of  this  divine  life  are  found,  em- 
bodied and  exemplified,  in  Christ.  If  a  man  would 
know  exactly  what  to  struggle  for  in  trying  to  realize 
to  perfection  the  divine  life,  or  if  a  man  would  know 
what  the  divine  life,  after  being  quickened  in  the 
soul,  and  unhindered  in  its  development,  will  come 
to,  he  may  see  it  all  in  Christ.  To  attain  unto  the 
measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fullness  of  Christ  is  to 
realize  the  divine  life  in  the  highest  and  completest 
form  possible  on  earth. 

II.  How  is  this  divine  life  in  man  to  be  developed 
into  its  Jairest  and  amplest  proportions? 

The  answers  to  this  question  are  many  and  varied. 
There  are  some  answers  which  would  be  given  in 
common  by  all  who  have  ever  paid  any  attention  to 


14  THE  DIVINE  LIFE  EV  MA  AT 

the  conditions  and  laws  of  spiritual  growth.  There 
are  still  other  answers  which  would  be  colored  by 
temperament,  or  circumstances,  or  peculiar  experi- 
ences, and  which  would  have  value  just  in  the  ratio 
in  which  they  might  fit  into  the  temperaments, or  cir- 
cumstances,or  peculiar  experiences  of  those  to  whom 
they  should  be  given.  There  are  further  answers 
which  might  create  not  a  little  suspicion  when  first 
announced,  but  nevertheless  might  have  in  them 
marked  worth  to  large  numbers  of  people. 

The  end  in  view,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind,  is  not 
to  get  the  divine  life  developed  in  part,  or  in  some 
single  feature  or  element  of  it,  but  to  get  it  built  up 
in  its  entireness — unfolded  until  it  is  complete  in  its 
sweetness  and  symmetry  and  strength. 

I.  First,  then,  as  one  of  the  2vays  in  which  this 
divine  life  in  man  may  he  developed  into  its  fairest 
and  amplest  -pro-portions,  there  may  be  mentioned  a 
profoimder  study  of  nature,  and  a  quicker,  heartier 
sympathy  with  all  the  movernents  and  disclosures  of 
nature. 

Nature  is  God's  creation.  All  the  laws  and 
methods  of  nature  are  emanations  from  the  divine 
mind.  The  Father  of  our  spirits  is  the  Maker  of  the 
stars  and  the  rocks  and  the  lilies.  God  speaks  to 
us  in  all  forms  of  life  and  beauty.  Nature  is  not 
agnostic.  Nature  is  witness  to  the  wisdom  and  power 
of  God.  In  every  sound  she  utters,  from  the  chirp 
of  a  cricket  on  the  hearth  and  the  sighing  of  the 
winds  through  the  tree-tops,  to  the  ceaseless    roar  of 


THE  DIVINE  LIFE  IN  MAN  15 

Niagara  and  the  awful  reverberations  of  thunder  in 
the  Alps,  Nature  is  eloquent  in  praise  of  God.  God's 
sign-manual  is  on  every  page  of  the  majestic  volume 
of  Nature. 

It  is  an  unutterable  misfortune  for  Science  and 
Religion  to  drift  apart.  If  Science  loses  its  bearings, 
and  goes  astray,  without  the  guidance  of  Religion, 
so  Religion  eliminates  one  of  the  strong  factors  of 
its  support,  and  is  the  weaker  for  it,  when  it  refuses 
to  make  the  most  of  the  deductions  of  Science.  Tak- 
ing this  course  it  has  to  walk  half-crippled  and  timidly 
where  it  might  walk  erect  and  with  a  firm  tread. 
We  get  an  indispensable  conception  of  God  from  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount.  We  also  get  an  indispensa- 
ble conception  of  God  from  the  Mount  on  which  the 
Sermon  was  delivered.  If  we  are  to  be  large  and 
full  in  our  divine  life,  and  to  stand  in  all-around  ac- 
cord with  God  in  His  activities,  we  cannot  afford  to 
forego  the  great  and  precious  lessons  God  would 
teach  us  through  the  countless  material  facts  and 
forms  of  the  outer  world. 

It  is  true  there  have  been  scientists  in  the  past,  as 
there  are  scientists  now,v>^ho  claimed  to  be  able  to  see 
no  traces  in  Nature  of  a  creative,  designing  and  su- 
perintending mind.  But  this  does  not  alter  the  fact. 
God  is  not  shut  out  of  the  universe,  and  out  of  ex- 
istence, because  there  are  some  men  who  refuse  to 
see  and  acknowledge  Him. 

There  are  men  who  read  the  Bible,  and  yet  can 
see  no  evidence  of  the  presence  of  God  m  the  book; 


1(5  THE  DIVINE  LIFE  IN  MAN 

but  this  blindness  does  not  set  aside  the  inspiration 
of  the  Bible.  There  are  men  who  have  made  a  study 
of  the  human  soul,  —  the  mind  with  its  wonderful 
powers,  the  conscience  with  its  capacity  for  moral 
discriminations,  who  have  yet  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  these  astonishing  endowments  count  nothing  in 
proof  of  the  existence  of  God.  All  the  same  the 
mind  in  the  very  structure  of  it  demands  and  demon- 
strates a  God. 

It  is  not  otherwise  with  Nature.  Nature  does  not 
cease  to  be  God's  voice,  and  the  organ  througli 
which  He  speaks  His  thought,  merely  because  there 
are  some  ears  too  gross  and  heav}'  to  detect  a  divine 
accent  in  the  utterance.  There  are  atheistic  botan- 
ists; but  botany  is  not  atheistic.  There  are  atheistic 
geologists;  but  geology  is  not  atheistic.  There  are 
atheistic  astronomers;  but  astronomy  is  not  atheistic. 
Every  flower  in  the  field,  ever}^  bit  of  granite  which 
lies  packed  away  in  the  mountains,  every  star  in  the 
multitudinous  constellations  which  shines  down  upon 
us  out  of  the  over-arching  skies,  every  bird  flitting 
from  limb  to  limb  and  filling  the  air  with  strains  of 
song,  every  flash  of  light,  every  manifestation  of  law, 
and  every  form  of  life  from  crawling  worm  to  quir- 
ing angel,  has  in  it  a  testimony  to  the  wisdom  and 
power  and  benignity  of  God.  "The  heavens  declare 
the  glory  of  God,  and  the  firmament  showeth  His 
handiwork." 

This  leads  to  saying  —  what  seems  often  to  be  over- 
looked —  how     large     was    the  use    of    nature  and 


THE  DIVINE  LIFE  IN  MAN  17 

how  helpful, which  was  made  by  the  Bible  writers!  No- 
tably is  this  true  of  the  Old  Testament  writers,  and  of 
our  Lord  as  reproduced  by  the  writers  of  the  New 
Testament.  To  the  Psalmist's  eye  heaven  and  earth 
alike  were  always  a  fresh  display  of  the  activities  and 
splendors  of  God.  The  Prophets  appear  to  have  been 
as  familiar  with  certain  natural  phenomena  as  are 
the  most  passionate  novel  readers  with  their  favorite 
authors.  In  the  thunder  Job  heard  God.  Lightning 
flashes  and  storm  and  heat  and  cold  had  for  him 
most  impressive  lessons  in  divinity.  May  we  forget 
who  said  "Behold  the  lilies"'.^  There  are  wholesome 
theologies  in  lilies,  in  hills,  in  brooks,  in  meadows, 
in  waving  fields.  Holy  men  of  old  appreciated  the 
teachings  of  nature  because  thej'  were  so  much  alive 
to  the  presence  of  God  in  all  the  on-goings  of  nature. 
To  leave  out  the  lessons  and  influences  of  nature  in 
our  cultivation  of  the  divine  life  within  us  is  to  leave 
out  something  which  tends  to  give  spiritual  whole- 
someness  and  breadth  and  solidity.  Whether  the  facts 
are  traced  out  and  laid  bare  to  us  after  the  manner 
of  Darwin  and  Dana  and  Newcomb  and  Wright,  or 
whether  the  facts  are  interpreted  and  illuminated  to 
our  understanding  by  men  of  the  genius  of  Ruskin 
and  Bryant  and  Burr  and  Burroughs,  there  is  nourish- 
ment in  them  for  our  spiritual  faculties.  To  be  blind 
to  the  presence  of  God  in  lakes  and  clouds  and  open 
skies  and  sweet  broad  landscapes  and  solemn  forests 
and  valleys  and  the  sweep  of  mountains  is  to  defraud 
our  own  souls.     Robertson  has  told  us  that  he    read 


18  THE  DIVINE  LIFE  IN  MAN 

the  works  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  as  he  read  the  works 
of  other  authors,  till  the  ideas  of  Edwards  became  a 
part  of  the  iron  atoms  of  his  blood.  He  has  also 
told  us  that  he  was  accustomed  to  go  apart  from  men 
and  books,  and  wander  out  into  the  fields  and  groves 
where  he  might  feel  God  through  what  was  about 
him,  and  learn  better  to  commune  with  Him  and 
adore  His  excellency.  Jonathan  Edwards  likewise, 
whom  Robertson  read  to  such  profit,  found  God  in  the 
fullness  of  an  unutterable  joy,  not  alone  in  the  study 
and  closet,  but  out  in  the  solitude  of  the  field  and 
forest.  In  drawing  his  portrait  of  Martin  Luther, 
Carlyle  seems  to  take  special  delight  in  putting  in 
those  touches  which  reveal  the  great  Reformer's  clear 
vision  for  the  presence  of  God  in  nature, and  showing 
what  sweet  lessons  he  learned  of  God  by  simply  lifting 
his  eyes  and  looking  abroad  on  the  world. 

To  have  simple,  harmonious  and  vigorous  spiritual 
life,  open  at  all  angles,  and  in  sympathy  with  God 
in  all  his  movements  and  manifestations,  one  needs 
more  familiarity  —  very  much  more  than  the  vast  ma- 
jority of  us  possess  —  with  what  God  has  written  in 
the  great  wide-open  Book  of  Nature.  It  is  healthy 
and  helpful.  It  is  not  possible  for  devout  souls  to 
come  near  to  nature  without  being  enriched  and 
gladdened.  The  beloved  Whittier,  in  a  mood  in 
which  he  altogether  underestimated  his  own  genius, 
lamented  that  he  was  obliged  to  look  upon  the  "  com- 
mon forms"  of  Nature  with  "unanointed  eyes;"  but 
it  was  he  who  sang  in  jubilant  strains; 


THE  DIVINE  LIFE  IN  MAN  19 

"The  harp  at  Nature's  advent  strung 
Has  never  ceased  to  play; 
The  song  the  stars  of  morning  sung 
Has  never  died  away. 
*  *  %  *  * 

So  Nature  keeps  the  reverent  frame 

With  which  her  years  began, 
And  all  her  signs  and  voices  shame 

The  prayerless  heart  of  man." 

2  Another  way  in  which  the  divine  life  zuithi)i  us 
may  be  developed  into  the  fairest  and  atnplcst  pro- 
■portions  is  by  tracing  God  and  follozuing  along  zuitJi 
God  in  the  -progressive  ttnfolding  of  history . 

This  world  in  which  we  live  itj  not  the  devil's 
world.  It  does  not  belong  to  the  devil.  Men  seem 
sometimes  to  be  willing  to  turn  it  all  over  to  his  bad 
care,  as  though  the  right  to  it  had  somehow  come  to 
inhere  in  him;  but  it  is  not  the  devil's  world,  —  it 
is  God's  world. 

So  historj'  in  the  thought  of  some  people  appears 
to  be  only  act  after  act  in  a  long  and  appalling  suc- 
cession of  violence  and  blood  and  treachery  and  de- 
ceit and  the  triumph  of  wrong.  Color  has  been  given 
to  this  view  by  the  fact  that  not  a  few  of  the  his- 
torians, like  not  a  few  of  the  scientists,  have  been 
men  without  any  religious  faith,  and  therefore  men 
who  have  taken  pains  to  leave  the  divine  factor  out 
of  their  accounts  of  the  march  of  events.  Motley 
could  write  the  story  of  the  awful  struggle  in  the 
Netherlands,  without  giving  any  recognition  to  God 
and  the  part  played  by  Providence   in   the   conflict. 


30  THE  DinXE  LIFE  IN  MAN 

Buckle  could  write  of  civilization,  just  as  though 
civilization  as  we  have  come  to  know  and  enjoy  it 
was  something  apart  from  all  divine  agenc}'.  Hume 
could  chronicle  the  stages  of  development  in  the  na- 
tional life  of  England  on  the  theory  that  what  seemed 
to  be  divine  interposition  from  time  to  time  in  the  in- 
terests of  freedom  and  intelligence  and  the  broaden- 
ing rights  of  men  were  only  fortuitous  happenings. 
Gibbon  could  bring  his  matchless  skill  and  immense 
learning  into  service  in  tracing  "The  Decline  and  Fall 
of  the  Roman  Empire,"  and  tell  the  tale  in  a  way 
to  ignore  God,  and  to  make  the  impression  that  the 
causes  of  all  this  mighty  growth  and  decay  were 
simply  human. 

But  Motley  and  Buckle  and  Hume  and  Gibbon 
alike  failed  in  so  far  as  they  refused  to  admit  God 
into  their  several  stories,  for  the  reason  that  God  was 
in  the  woof  and  warp  of  the  events  they  recorded  and 
could  not  be  left  out  without  harm  to  their  narratives. 
His  name  could  be  left  out,  and  any  positive  recog- 
nition of  His  presence  and  service  could  be  left  out, 
but  God  could  not  be  left  out.  God  was  a  living,  in- 
ruling  and  over-ruling  Energy  in  all  these  historic 
developments.  He  was  not  in  Roman  history  in  the 
same  way  and  for  the  same  purpose  that  he  was  in 
Israelitish  history.  He  was  not  in  English  history 
in  the  same  way  and  for  the  same  purpose,  nor  in 
the  history  of  Holland  in  the  same  way  and  for  the 
same  purpose,  that  He  was  in  Israelitish  history. 
Nevertheless  He  was  in  the  history  of  each  of  these 


THE  DIVINE  IJEE  IM  MAN  21 

peoples,  —  a  potent,  guiding  and  traceable  Force. 
He  has  been  present  in  all  nations,  and  in  all  civili- 
zations. His  agency  and  intervention  have  been 
marked  in  our  American  history.  He  is  at  work  in 
England  and  France  and  German}^,  in  Japan  and 
China  and  Africa,  and  everywhere,  to-day. 

This  is  what  is  to  be  recognized  if  men  would  be 
intelligent  and  broad-minded  in  their  faith.  They 
must  take  wide  views  of  God's  working  in  the  world, 
both  as  to  the  past  and  present,  and  cultivate  the 
habit  of  seeing  His  movements  in  the  rise  and  fall  of 
empires,  and  in  the  progress  of  civilization,  and  in 
the  victories  of  truth  and  righteousness.  There  is 
something  tonic  as  well  as  broadening  in  this  method 
of  looking  at  events.  It  adds  immensely  to  our  con- 
fidence to  feel  that  God  is  behind  all  the  epoch- 
making  men  and  the  epoch-making  measures;  and 
that  in  the  great  transactions  which  have  changed 
the  face  of  society,  and  set  humanity  forward,  He 
has    been    not  a  silent  but  an  active  agent. 

To  read  the  story  of  Columbus  with  God  excluded 
from  the  record  is  to  narrow  thought  and  dwarf  one's 
own  manhood;  but  to  read  this  story  with  God's 
presence  recognized  is  to  lend  dignity  to  ever}^ 
human  soul.  It  lifts  us  all  to  a  higher  plane,  and 
makes  life  an  interest  of  vaster  moment.  More  than 
an  epic  grandeur  attaches  to  the  dauntless  voyaging 
and  state-building  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  because 
we  are  so  sure  all  their  movements  were  under  the 
guidance  of  a  divine   wisdom.      When    we  think    of 


22  THE  DIVINE  LIFE  IN  MAN 

them  as  the  chosen  instruments  of  Providence  for  se- 
curing and  maintaining  liberty,  Washington  and 
Lincoln  grow  upon  us,  and  we  grow  with  them.  To 
have  no  eye  to  see  God  in  historj^  and  in  current 
events  is  to  be  blind  to  some  of  the  most  impressive 
manifestations  of  God,  and  to  deprive  the  soul  of  a 
source  of  knowledge  and  strength  of  which  it  stands 
often  in  special  need. 

3.  Another  way  still  in  zvhich  the  divine  life  zuith- 
in  us  may  be  developed  into  the  fairest  and  amplest 
■proportions  is  by  recognizing  God  and  learning  zuhat 
He  has  to  teach  as  He  has  come  into  manifestation 
through  literature. 

By  this  ver}'^  much  more  is  understood  than  the 
reading  of  books  which  are  technically  called  books 
of  devotion.  Even  with  this  class  of  literature  there 
is  in  general  too  little  familiarity.  There  would  be 
less  worldliness,  less  ignorance  of  the  laws  and  con- 
ditions of  spiritual  life,  and  more  faith  in  prayer,  and 
more  heart  in  worship,  and  more  joy  in  all  kinds  of 
Christian  service,  were  more  time  given  by  believers 
to  such  helps  to  growth  in  knowledge  and  grace  as 
have  been  furnished  in  the  devotional  works  of 
Thomas  a  Kempis  and  Bunyan  and  Baxter  and  Dod- 
dridge and  Taylor  and  Howe  and  Tholuck  and 
Rutherford  and  James  and  by  the  eminent  writers  of 
Sacred  Poetry. 

By  this,  too,  very  much  more  is  understood  than 
the  reading  of  books  which  pertain  exclusively  to 
reliorious  subjects.  It  ought  to  go  without  saying 
that  books  on  the  existence  and  personality  and  attri- 


THE  DIVINE  LIFE  IN  MAN  23 

butes  of  God  ;  on  the  self-revelation  and  moral  govern- 
ment of  God ;  on  the  history  of  the  church  from  the 
beginning  until  now;  on  Christ  and  the  evidences 
of  Christianity ;  on  the  Scriptures  and  especially  books 
adapted  to  explain  and  defend  the  divine  origin  and 
authority  of  the  Scriptures  are  aids  to  spiritual  prog- 
ress which  no  true  disciple  of  our  Lord  who  has 
means  and  time  at  his  disposal  can  afford  to  forego. 
The  supernatural  is  so  sharply  attacked  in  these  days; 
so  many  assaults,  disguised  and  undisguised, are  made 
on  miracles;  and  so  many  attempts  are  put  forth  to 
overturn  the  very  foundations  of  belief,  that  it  is  wise 
to  know  what  the  brightest  minds  have  to  say  in  sup- 
port of  our  faith. 

But  all  large  and  worthy  books  on  large  and 
worthy  subjects  are  helpful.  ''And  the  books,"  wrote 
Paul  to  Timothy,  —  "bring  .  .  .  the  books."  It 
ought  to  be  thought  a  fact  of  no  little  significance, 
and  an  authoritative  testimony  to  the  value  of  books, 
and  a  stimulation  to  the  wise  and  diligent  use  of 
books,  that  the  great  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles,  when 
bolted  in  behind  prison-bars  there  at  Rome,  and  as- 
sured in  his  own  mind  that  it  would  not  be  long  be- 
fore officials  charged  with  the  bloody  business  would 
lead  him  forth  to  execution,  put  in  an  urgent  plea 
for  his  books.  One  is  curious  to  know  just  what 
these  books  were.  There  can  be  no  risk  in  saying 
that  among  the  number  there  must  have  been  the 
choicest  productions  —  inspired  and  uninspired  —  of 
the  old  Hebrew  mind.     It  is  little  less  certain  that  in 


24  THE  DIVINE  LIFE  IN  MAN 

this  small  library  ther-e  were  books  of  classical  au- 
thors. Repeated  references  in  his  sermons  and  let- 
ters leave  no  doubt  that  the  Apostle  was  familiar 
with  Stoic  modes  of  thought,  and  with  the  sentiment 
of  the  Greek  poets.  But  whatever  the  books  were, 
Paul  wanted  them;  and  however  brief  might  be  the 
remaining  period  of  his  life  he  was  sure  they  would 
bring  him  light  and  comfort  and  courage.  God  was 
speaking  to  his  soul  in  other  ways;  but  He  would 
also  speak  to  his  soul  through  the  books.  This  is 
one  of  the  open  ways  through  which  God  has  come 
in  on  humanity.  God  did  not  leave  himself  with- 
out witness  in  the  outer  world  in  that  He  so  created 
matter  and  mind  that  the  facts  of  creation  were  forced 
to  testify  to  an  everlasting  power  and  divinity. 
Neither  has  He  left  himself  without  witness  in  liter- 
ature. It  need  not  raise  the  vexed  question  of  in- 
spiration, either  as  to  its  purpose  or  its  credential  or 
its  variety  or  its  measure,  to  say  God  has  had  so 
much  part  and  aim,  whether  the  men  themselves 
were  conscious  of  it  or  not,  in  the  expressions  of 
thought  which  have  been  given  to  the  world  from 
century  to  centur}^  by  the  loftiest  minds,  that  He 
comes  into  independent  manifestation  through  these 
forms  of  intellectual  activity  and  production,  and  in 
this  way  both  confirms  our  faith  in  Him  and  enlarges 
our  conception  of  His  working.  To  read  the  Greek 
Trairedies  is  to  come  into  a  new  conviction  of  the  awful 
fact  of  retribution  for  wrong-doing.  To  read  Plato  and 
Cicero  and  Emerson  is  to  renew  strength  in  the  assur- 


THE  DIVINE  LIFE  IN  MAN  25 

ance  of  immortality.  To  read  the  biographies  of  such 
men  as  Charlemagne  and  William  of  Orange  and  Oli- 
ver Cromwell  and  George  Washington  and  Abraham 
Lincoln  is  to  seethe  divine  will  in  operation  in  provi- 
dence and  trace  the  footprints  of  the  Almighty  as  He 
moves  forward  to  the  accomplishment  of  His  ends 
amongst  the  nations.  To  read  Dante  and  Shake- 
speare and  Milton  and  Goethe,  and  their  illustrious 
fellows  in  song,  if  the  reading  be  intelligent  and 
sj^mpathetic,  is  to  push  back  the  horizon  of  the  soul 
and  discover  new  meanings  in  all  the  facts  of  nature 
and  life,  and  feel  constrained  to  bow  with  a  deeper 
reverence  at  the  feet  of  Him  whose  creative  wisdom 
and  energy  have  wrought  out  all  these  wonders.  To 
contemplate  a  great  fact,  no  matter  who  has  shaped 
it;  .to  come  under  the  force  of  a  great  truth,  no  mat- 
ter who  has  uttered  it;  to  master  a  great  movement 
in  history,  no  matter  whether  inside  or  outside  the 
church,  never  fails  to  aid  in  the  development  of 
Christian  intelligence  and  Christian  character. 

4.  But  the  way  most  vital  and  important  0/  all 
in  which  the  divine  life  in  man  may  be  developed  into 
the  fairest  and  amplest  proportions,  is  by  keeping  the 
sold  in  living  contact  with  God  and  cultivating  the 
graces  and  elements  of  character  which  make  one 
most  like  Christ. 

This  means  a  careful  and  profound  study  of  the 
Word  of  God.  Not  as  literature  merely  are  we  thus 
to  study  it,  but  as  a  source  of  spiritual  light  and  a 
channel  of  divine  grace.     The  Bible  is  the  record  of 


26  THE  DIVINE  LIFE  IN  MAN 

God's  dealings  with  men.  It  discloses  God  in  the 
various  aspects  of  His  thought  and  feeling  and  intent 
through  the  personality  of  the  individual  to  whom  he 
speaks.  It  is  a  revelation  to  the  world  of  His  will, 
and  of  the  ways  so  multitudinous  in  which  He  draws 
near  and  blesses  those  who  obey  him,  and  defeats 
and  overturns  those  who  disregard  Him  and  His  laws. 
The  lessons  to  be  learned  are  both  many  and  precious 
when  we  get  into  close  sympathy  with  the  souls  on 
whom  God  in  the  olden  time  laid  His  burdens,  or  to 
whom  He  whispered  His  secrets.  How  it  helps  us  to  be 
told  the  stor^'  of  some  of  the  mighty  wrestlings  of  pa- 
triarchs and  prophets!  What  could  we  do  without  the 
Psalms  to  aid  us  in  our  self-discoveries  and  in  our  bitter 
confessions  and  in  our  joyous  ascriptions  to  the  bound- 
less mercy  of  God?  As  a  guide  to  right  ideas  of 
God,  as  a  ground  of  confidence  in  the  love  of  God, 
as  helps  in  opening  out  to  us  the  wa}'  of  life  and  duty, 
is  there  any  possible  substitute  for  the  Gospel?  Could 
we  get  along  without  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and 
the  Discourse  in  the  Upper  Chamber,  and  the  Story 
of  the  Crucifixion?  The  Scriptures  are  indispensa- 
ble to  spiritual  life  and  growth. 

In  general  a  man  may  know  with  a  good  deal  of 
exactness  where  he  is  religiously  by  the  place  the 
Bible  holds  in  the  routine  of  his  daily  life.  If  it  is 
the  newspaper  before  the  Bible;  or  the  magazine,  or 
the  novel;  if,  indeed,  it  is  the  best  book  ever  written 
by  an  uninspired  author  before  the  Bible,  the  man 
may  take  it  for  granted  that  his    spirituality  is  not  of 


THE  DIVIXE  LITE  IN  JIAN  27 

a  very  fine  or  high  order,  and  that  the  divine  life 
within  him  needy  special  nourishing.  With  a  closed 
Bible,  or  a  Bible  opened  only  fitfully,  and  read  here 
and  there  at  haphazard,  there  is  not  likely  to  be  any 
advance  in  thought  and  apprehension  of  divine  truth, 
nor  any  clearer  light  thrown  on  the  problems  of  duty. 
An  open  Bible  is  assurance  of  progress  in  knowl- 
edge and  spiritual-mindedness,  but  a  shut  Bible  is  a 
halt  to  growth. 

This  means  communion,  intimate,  loving,  habitual, 
with  God  in  pra3'er.  The  prophet  speaks  of  a  time 
when  the  scattered  people  of  whom  he  was  writing 
should  take  root  downward  and  bear  fruit  upward. 
No  man  can  ever  be  well  rooted  in  the  divine  life, 
nor  eminently  fruitful  in  the  divine  life,  without 
prayer.  With  what  frequency  and  earnestness  the 
Psalmist  cried  out  to  be  taught  of  God  and  led  in 
His  paths!  ''Teach  me  thy  way,0  Lord."  The  mind 
and  the  heart  are  to  be  brought  into  fresh  and  living 
contact  with  the  living  God.  General  Booth  evi- 
dently puts  too  little  stress  on  some  other  means  of 
knowledge  and  grace,  but  he  is  undoubtedly  right 
in  getting  a  man  just  as  soon  as  possible  on  his  knees 
before  God.  In  His  light  they  shall  see  light.  Face 
to  face  with  God  the  mind  acts  rapidly,  memory  and 
imagination  and  all  the  faculties  are  marvelously 
quickened;  and  sin  and  the  consequences  of  sin  are 
likely  to  loom  before  the  thought  as  facts  appalling 
to  contemplate.  Ideas  are  flashed  upon  us,  and  feel- 
ings are  stirred  within  us, when  in  the  attitude  of  sin- 


2S  THE  DIVINE  LIFE  INMAN 

cere  and  earnest  prayer,  of  which  we  might  have  had 
no  conception  otherwise.  This  has  been  the  expe- 
rience of  devout  men  and  women  throughout  the 
centuries.  In  the  seclusion  of  closets  God  sometimes 
approaches  wondei fully  near  to  souls.  In  the  light 
of  closets,  when  meditation  is  free  and  the  access  of 
the  Spirit  is  unhindered,  the  heart  not  unfrequently 
has  startling  experiences  of  self-revelation.  In  clos- 
ets, too,  heaven  seems  occasionally  to  open,  and 
sights  incommunicable  salute  the  vision.  No  place 
is  there  where  the  divine  life  within  us  can  be  so 
surely  and  so  rapidly  developed  as  in  communion 
with  God. 

This  means  a  clean  walk.  All  other  means  of 
maintaining  and  quickening  divine  life  in  the  soul 
may  be  employed,  but  little  or  nothing  will  come  of 
it  if  there  is  not  a  care  as  to  conduct.  The  heart  must 
be  kept  sweet  with  pure  thoughts,  and  the  tongue 
unstained  with  low  talk  and  miserable  falsehoods, 
and  the  hands  unsoiled  by  contact  with  the  grime  of 
sin.  God  is  patient  with  sinners, — inlinitely  patient. 
There  is  no  one  so  defiled  that  He  will  not  help  him 
into  whiteness,  if  he  wishes  to  be  so  helped.  But 
no  man  can  dall}'  with  sin;  no  man  can  cherish  sin; 
no  man  can  deliberately  plunge  down  into  the  vile- 
ness  of  sin,  and  remain  in  the  fellowship  of  God. 
The  divine  life  in  man  is  begun  by  giving  up  sin, 
and  it  is  continued  and  carried  on  only  on  condition 
that  one  will  consent  to  be  true  and  open  and  straight- 
forward. It  flourishes  only  in  an  atmosphere  of 
purity. 


THE  DIVLVE  LIFE  IN  MAN  29 

This  means  above  all  else  the  closest  possible  iden- 
titication  of  the  life  with  the  life  of  Christ.  It  has 
already  been  said  that  the  standard  and  type  of  this 
divine  life  are  found  in  Christ.  He  interprets  to  us 
what  is  signified  by  being  made  in  the  image  of 
God,  and  being  a  partaker  of  the  divine  nature,  and 
being  a  child  of  the  Heavenly  Father.  He  exhibits 
to  the  world  the  beauty  and  symmetry  of  this  divine 
life. 

But  as  Jesus  is  the  measure  and  illustration  of  this 
life,  so  He  is  also  the  source  of  it.  His  own  words 
are:  "I  am  .  .  .  the  life."  "I  came  that  they  may 
have  life,  and  may  have  it  abundantly."  This  is 
where  we  are  to  start  —  in  Christ.  This  is  where  we 
must  abide  —  in  Christ.  He  is  the  One  we  are  to  fol- 
low in  all  ways  of  self-denial  and  loving  service  — 
Christ.  We  are  to  be  so  united  to  Christ,  and  to 
have  all  our  motives  and  aspirations  so  bound  up  in 
Christ,  that  we  can  say  with  the  great  Apostle:  "For 
me  to  live  is  Christ." 

This  close  personal  union  with  Christ  lies  at  the 
heart  of  it  all.  There  can  be  no  experience  of  a 
genuine  divine  life,  — a  life,  that  is,  which  is  on  the 
plane  of  the  life  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  is  conform- 
able to  the  will  of  God,  unless  the  supplies  and  in- 
spirations of  it  come  from  Christ.  One  must  get  his 
life  rooted  in  Christ  as  plants  are  rooted  in  the  earth. 
One  must  have  his  life  fed  from  Christ,  as  brooks  are 
fed  from  springs.  Admiration  of  Christ  is  not 
enough.     It  is  not  enough  to  be  willing  to    receive 


30  THE  DIVIXE  LIEE  IN  MAN 

instruction  from  His  lips,  and  to  count  Him  wise. 
It  is  not  enough  to  be  persuaded  that  He  is  God 
manifest  in  the  flesh.  The  heart  must  come  under 
His  quickening  power,  and  the  will  must  answer 
affirmatively  to  His  will,  and  all  the  channels  of  the 
soul  must  be  open  to  the  inflow  of  the  thought  and 
energy  and  spirit  of  Christ.  It  must  be  the  realiz- 
ation in  fact,  of  the  figure  of  the  branches  ingrafted 
into  the  vine,  and  drawing  thence  the  life  of  their 
own  life.  Moments  come  to  us  when  we  long  with 
unutterable  longing  just  to  be  lost  in  Christ.  These 
moments  are  prophetic  of  what  is  both  desirable  and 
possible.  Moments  come  to  us  when  we  want  nothing 
so  much  as  to  let  Christ  have  His  own  sweet  and  un- 
hindered way  in  us  and  with  us.  These  moments 
are  foretastes  of  the  joy  which  never  fails  to  one  who 
makes  complete  surrender  to  the  Lord.  Moments 
come  to  us  when  light  from  the  face  of  Christ  falls 
in  upon  our  souls,  and  the  earth  is  illuminated  and 
the  heavens  flame  resplendent,  and  high  apocalyptic 
visions  seem  no  longer  extravagant,  and  we  are  ex- 
alted into  fellowships  which  are  the  songs  of  victory. 
These  moments  are  demonstrative  of  the  reality  of  a 
divine  life  for  all  who  will  live  it. 

One  would  think  it  hardly  needs  to  be  said,  yet  it 
has  been  said  a  great  many  times  in  the  past, and  will 
require  to  be  said  a  great  many  times  in  the  future, 
no  doubt,  that  there  is  nothing  in  us,  nothing  con- 
cerning us,  which  is  of  so  much  consequence  as  fall- 
ing into  line  with   the    will   of  God,  and  permitting 


THE  DIVINE  IJEE  IN  MAN  31 

His  life,  so  far  as  may  be,  to  have  reproduction  in 
our  lives.  We  win  our  greatest  triumphs,  and  we 
realize  our  loftiest  destinies,  in  the  realm  of  the  divine 
life.  To  live  this  life  in  its  fullness  is  to  walk  with 
God,  and  to  know  the  fellowship  of  the  Son  of  God, 
and  to  enjoy  the  indwelling  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
to  advance  step  by  step  to  the  inheritance  of  the  saints 
in  light.  This  little  earthly  life  comes  to  an  end  and 
disappears;  wealth,  pleasure  and  all  worldly  posses- 
sions go  with  it;  but  the  divine  life  which  is  life  from 
God  and  in  God  and  with  God  abides  forever. 


CHRIST  THE  YEA  OF  GOD. 

In  Him  is  yea.     2  Corinthians  i :  iq. 

The  special  topic  suggested  by  these  words,  and 
the  topic  to  which  it  has  seemed  to  me  worth  while 
to    invite  attention,  is:      Christ  the  Tea  of  God. 

The  story  of  the  circumstances  in  which  the  pas- 
sage before  us  originated  is  quickly  told.  Paul  was 
accused  by  some  of  the  Corinthian  brethren  of  in- 
consistency and  fickleness.  He  had  been  with  them 
once.  It  was  his  intention  to  visit  them  again,  that 
they  might  have  what  he  calls  a  second  "benefit"  or 
"favor."  But  this  purpose  was  changed  and  another 
plan  was  carried  out.  Advantage  was  taken  of  this 
change  of  plan  to  intimate,  or,  it  may  be,  somewhat 
more  than  intimate,  that  the  Apostle  was  whiffle- 
minded,  and  came  lightly  to  his  decisions,  and  as 
lightly  reversed  or  disregarded  them.  He  was  net- 
tled, as  any  man  might  well  be,  by  the  whispering 
of  things  so  much  to  his  damage.  He  was  not  slow 
to  speak  out  in  his  own  defense.  His  defense  was 
to  the  effect  that  the  accusation  was  not  true.  He 
had  not  acted  from  impulse,  nor  from  an}'  low 
worldly  consideration.  Tliough  they  might  think 
otherwise,  his  nay  was  yet  nay  and  his  3'ea  was  yea. 

It  was  in  the  course  of  this  explanation,  made  in 
32 


CHRIST  THE   YEA  OF  GOD  33 

self-defense,  that  the  Apostle  had  occasion  to  refer  to 
Christ  as  the  yea  of  God.  He  was  preaching  Christ. 
It  would  be  a  gross  ethical  inconsistency  for  him  to 
preach  Christ,  who  was  always  true  to  His  word, 
while  at  the  same  time  he  himself  was  vacillating  be- 
tween yes  and  no,  and  saying  one  thing  at  one  mo- 
ment, and  another  thing  at  another  inoment,  and 
quite  disregarding  all  his  promises.  "But  as  God  is 
faithful,  our  word  toward  you  is  not  yea  and  nay. 
Far  the  Son  of  God,  Jesus  Christ,  who  was  preached 
among  you  by  us  .  .  .  was  not  yea  and  nay, 
but  in  Him  is  yea.  For  how  man}"-  soever  be  the 
promises  of  God,  in  Him  is  the  yea." 

Of  course,  it  might  not  follow,  either  as  a  matter 
of  fact  or  of  logic,  that  his  preaching  of  Christ 
would  always  hold  him  steady  to  the  spirit  and  ex- 
ample of  Christ.  Nevertheless  Paul  ventured  to 
think  his  known  loyalty  to  Christ  was  such  that  men 
could  not  easily  be  made  to  believe  him  guilty  of  the 
moral  incongruity  of  holding  Christ  forth  as  the  un- 
changing and  unchangeable  affirmation  of  God,  while 
he  permitted  His  Divine  example  to  have  no  power 
over  his  own  conduct.  One  could  not  be  established 
in  Christ  without  being  established  in  veracity.  One 
could  not  proclaim  Christ  without  being  rebuked  and 
smitten  at  every  utterance,  if  he  should  say  what  he 
did  not  mean,  or  should  falter  in  a  manly  upright- 
ness and  stability.   So,  he  felt  sure,  men  must  reason. 

With  this  statement  of  the  occasion  there  was  for 
bringing    this    thought  forward  by  the  Apostle,  and 


34  CHRIST  THE  YEA   OF  GOD 

what  seemed  to  him  the  necessity  of  it  as  well,  it  is 
now  in  order  to  return  to  it  and  see  what  is  meant 
by  the  assertion  that  Christ  is  the  3'ea  of  God,  and 
what  it  holds  for  us.  Christ  as  the  Yea  of  God  means 
two  things. 

I.  It  means  in  the  first  -place,  that  in  Christ  the 
seal  is  set  to  all  the  -proniises  of  God, 

"For  how  many  soever  be  the  nromises  of  God, 
in  Him  is  the  yea." 

The  presence  of  Christ  in  the  ranks  of  our  human- 
ity was  the  full  and  sweet  ratifying  of  every  assur- 
ance made  by  God  looking  to  the  restoration  of  the 
lost,  and  the  guiding  and  comforting  and  upbuilding 
of  the  redeemed,  from  the  prophetic  moment  when 
the  first  word  of  hope  was  spoken  to  a  guilty  and 
condemned  race  down  to  the  great  hour  of  the  In- 
carnation. Christ  either  fulfilled  every  promise  in 
Himself,  or  He  became  the  pledge  of  the  fulfillment 
of  every  promise  which  contemplated  good  to  the 
human  race.  This  is  the  comforting  vievvf  which 
Paul  set  forth  and  emphasized  in  his  word  to  the  Ro- 
mans: "That  He  might  confirm  the  promises  given 
unto  the  fathers."  Christ  was  the  living  So-Be-It 
with  which  God  rounded  out  and  crowned  all  He 
had  intimated  or  declared  in  the  way  of  awakening 
expectations  through  prophets  and  law-givers  and 
psalmists.  Men  had  only  to  turn  from  any  reason- 
able hope  the  Scriptures  had  created  and  look  on 
Christ  to  find  it  realized. 

n.      Christ  as  the  Tea  of  God  means,  in  the  second 
-place,  that  He  is  the  affirmation  of  God. 


CHRIST  THE  YEA  OF  GOD  35 

Christ  manifested  God.  He  set  God  forth  to  the 
reason  and  the  conscience,  and  made  it  easier  for  all 
souls  to  apprehend  Him  and  love  Him.  "The  only 
begotten  Son  .  .  .  hath  declaied  Him."  "Hence- 
forth ye  know  Him  and  have  seen  Him.''  "He  that 
hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father."  Christ  is  the 
forth-putting  of  God  in  the  great  affirmative  elements 
and  attributes  of  His  character.  He  shows  God; 
He  interprets  God;  He  voices  God.  He  is  the 
channel  through  which  the  life  and  light  and  grace 
of  God  flow  in  upon  humanity. 

In  the  opening  passage  of  the  Gospel  of  John, 
Christ  is  brought  before  us  in  three  aspects  of  His 
nature.  First,  He  is  declared  to  be  God:  "The 
Word  was  God."  Second,  He  assumes  the  place 
and  attributes  of  man:  "The  Word  became  flesh 
and  dwelt  among  us."  Third,  He  is  the  Revealer  of 
the  Father:  "No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time 
He  hath  declared  Him." 

It  is  in  this  latter  direction  that  our  thought  is  now 
moving.  In  the  higher  service  of  revealing  the 
Father,  John  sets  Christ  over  against  Moses  and  puts 
what  He  did  to  make  God,  in  His  essential  being, 
known  to  the  world  in  sharp  contrast  to  what  the 
great  law-giver  did.  "For  the  law  was  given  by 
Moses;  grace  and  truth  came  by  Jesus  Christ."  The 
giving  of  the  law  was  a  disclosure  of  God ;  but  it 
was  not  a  disclosure  so  full  and  tender  that  it  could 
be  said  to  be  a  revelation  of  all  that  men  were  capable 
of  apprehending   of  God.     It  was  a  revelation ;  but 


36  CffRIST  THE   YEA   OF  GOD 

it  was  a  revelation  preparatory  and  prophetic;  and, 
like  many  of  the  fore-gleams  and  longings  and  cour- 
ageous conjectures  found  in  thoughtful  souls  lying 
outside  the  line  of  the  Chosen  People,  it  looked  for- 
ward to  something  j'et  to  come,higher  and  richer  and 
more  satisfactory. 

Speaking  in  general,  therefore,  it  may  be  said  that 
the  Christ  did  not  break  in  on  the  world  to- find  it 
empty  of  the  thought  and  knowledge  of  God.  In  a 
certain  sense  men  knew  God  —  men  everywhere. 
They  knew  Him  well  enough  to  make  them  morally 
accountable  for  their  conduct.  "For  the  invisible 
things  of  Him  since  the  creation  of  the  world  are 
clearly  seen,  being  perceived  through  the  things  that 
are  made,  even  His  everlasting  power  and  divinity." 
But  in  a  certain  sense  men  did  not  know  God.  "The 
world  through  its  wisdom,"  so  says  the  Apostle, 
again,  "knew  not  God."  It  did  not  know  Him,  that 
is,  in  any  true  and  adequate  way.  It  did  not  know 
Him  rationall}'  and  fruitfull3\  Through  sin  reason 
had  become  darkened  and  conscience  dull.  The  old 
revelations  were  obscure,  and  God  seemed  not  near, 
but  afar  off;  not  a  living  personality,  but  a  tradition 
and  a  dream. 

In  his  great  work  on  The  Divine  Origin  of  Chris- 
tianity Indicated  by  its  Historical  Effects,  Dr.  Storrs 
says:  "There  had  been  points  in  the  experience  of 
various  peoples,  where  natural  religion  seemed  near- 
ly, if  not  wholly,  to  touch  the  level  of  revelation; 
where  the  primitive  conception  of  God  had    been  so 


CHRIST  THE  YEA  OF  GOD  37 

Complete!}''  worthy  and  high  that  the  subsequent  de- 
scent from  it  seems  almost  incredible." 

This  distinguished  author  does  not  attempt  to  ex- 
plain these  high,  primitive  conceptions  of  God,  which 
are  discoverable  in  peoples  other  than  the  Hebrews, 
though  he  admits  and  indorses  the  claim.  His  in- 
clination is  to  think  man  has  an  innate  sense  of  God, 
which  sense  is  implied  in  his  constant  consciousness 
of  dependence  and  also  of  obligation.  Both  these 
feelings  point  to  a  Power  above  him  and  open  the 
way  for  any  approaches  God  may  wish  to  make  to 
the  souls  of  His  earthly  children. 

But  the  fact  of  this  universal  consciousness  of  God 
is  all  that  now  concerns  us.  Theism  —  monotheism  — 
appears  to  have  been  an  original  and  universal  con- 
ception in  the  primitive  religions  of  mankind.  At 
the  fountain-heads  of  life,  before  the  streams  had 
been  corrupted  by  wrong  doing  and  idle  speculation, 
men  felt  or  reasoned  their  way  into  the  thought  of 
God,  and  God  was  acknowledged. 

The  Old  Testament  makes  it  clear  that  along  one 
line  of  descent  from  the  original  ancestors  of  man- 
kind, and  for  centuries  upon  centuries,  a  well-detined 
and  lofty  idea  of  God  was  maintained.  Abel,  Noah, 
Abraham,  Moses,  Samuel,  David,  Isaiah,  Daniel, 
Malachi,  John  the  Baptist  were  exponents,  each  in 
his  own  wa}',  of  views  of  God,  which  were  creditable 
alike  to  their  heads  and  hearts.  God  in  the  person- 
ality of  His  being,  in  His  essential  oneness,  in  the 
infinitude  and  sovereignty  of  His  power,  and  the  eter- 


38  CHRIST  THE   YEA  OF  GOD 

nity  of  His  existence,  as  well  as  in  certain  aspects  of 
His  love  and  care,  was  domesticated  and  cherished 
in  the  thought  of  the  Hebrew  mind. 

Pains  must  be  taken  not  to  underestimate  what 
was  known  of  God  before  Christ  came  to  make  the 
larger  and  clearer  revelation.  Men  who  have  points 
to  score  are  in  danger  of  not  giving  sufficient  credit 
to  the  old  knowledge.  In  His  natural  attributes,  and 
in  some  phases  of  His  moral  attributes,  there  was 
not  much  to  be  desired,  to  make  the  conception  of 
God,  as  entertained  by  the  best  and  most  devout  souls 
among  His  ancient  people,  elevated  and  satisfactory. 
Some  of  the  statements  concerning  the  greatness 
and  wisdom  and  majesty  and  might  of  God  found 
in  Genesis  and  Job,  in  the  Psalms  and  Prophets, 
challenge  rivalry.  "In  the  beginning  God  created 
the  heavens  and  the  earth"  is  a  statement  at  once  and 
a  tribute  v>?hich  admit  of  no  improvement. 

At  the  same  time,  the  disclosure  which  Jesus 
Christ  made  of  God  —  the  interpretation  which  He 
gave  of  the  character  of  God,  —  was  so  much  in  ad- 
vance, though  in  some  particulars  projected  along 
the  same  lines  with  which  the  best  spirits  were  fa- 
miliar, and  supplemental  of  anything  the  world  had 
ever  known  before,  that  it  might  be  truly  said:  "No 
man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time;  the  only  begotten 
Son  which  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  He  hath 
revealed  Him." 

But  let  us  deal  more  specifically  with  the  service 
rendered  by  our  Lord  in  this  sphere. 


CHRIST  I'lIE   YEA  OF  GOD  39 

I.  To  begin  zuith,  Christ  revived  and  restored 
God  to  the  flacc  in  the  thoughts  of  men  He  had  once 
held,  but  out  from  zuhich  He  had  fallen  through  the 
degeneration  of  moral  life  in  the  nations. 

The  conception  of  God,  as  once  cherished  by  in- 
telligent and  reverent  souls,  not  onl}^  outside  but  in- 
side the  Jewish  nationality,  had  lost  a  large  part  of 
its  vital  force.  There  was  no  longer  any  living  pulse 
in  it.  The  knowledge  of  God,  as  the  most  knew 
Him,  was  a  dead  knowledge, —  an  empty  and  mocking 
tradition.  There  are  hardly  any  pages  in  history  so 
sad  as  those  which  record  the  lapse  of  men  from  faith 
in  God,  and  the  consequent  decay  of  conscience  and 
righteousness,  and  the  awful  plunge  downward  into 
sensuality.  The  idea  of  God  had  become  so  dwarfed 
and  debased  in  the  common  apprehension,  that  mul- 
titudes amongst  the  foremost  people  of  the  globe  did 
not  hesitate  to  ascribe  to  Him,  or  to  the  countless 
deities  into  which  they  divided  the  one  Supreme  Be- 
ing, the  same  appetites  and  passions  and  lusts  which 
had  control  in  their  own  lives.  They  first  degraded 
themselves,  and    then  they  degraded  God. 

The  coming  of  Christ  was  like  the  sudden  bursting 
of  a  glorious  sunrise  upon  a  world  which  had  some- 
how forgotten  to  turn  its  face  to  the  day,  and  was 
weltering  in  a  darkness  which  was  all  the  time  grow- 
ing deeper  and  deeper.  Had  not  Christ  appeared 
when  He  did,  with  a  revelation  of  God  v^'hich  was 
fresh  and  vital  and  more  commanding  than  any  ever 
before  made,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  the  nations,  one 


40  CHRIST  Tlin  YEA  OF  GOD 

and  all, could  have  kept  from  drifting  back  into  utter 
barbarism,  or  rotting  down  into  a  loathsome  mass. 
Here  and  there  one  might  come  upon  an  exception; 
but  in  the  popular  thought,  and  in  the  ruling  thought, 
there  was  no  God.  It  was  atheism.  It  was  panthe- 
ism. It  was  polytheism.  To  avow  any  faith,  in 
most  quarters  of  the  civilized  world,  was  to  become 
a  target  for  the  shafts  of  ridicule.  Christ  re-created 
a  conception  of  God  under  the  ribs  of  moral  and 
spiritual  death.  He  made  men  sensible  once  more 
of  the  beating  of  the  Divine  heart. 

2.  Fiirthcr  than  this,  as  has  been  hinted  al- 
ready, Christ  took  men  forzvardv  into  new  thoughts 
of  God. 

If  we  may  so  speak,  Christ  unfolded  God  to  men ; 
though,  perhaps,  it  would  be  better  to  say  that  He 
unfolded  Himself  to  men,  and  in  the  unfolding  of 
Himself  men  saw  God.  This  is  a  distinction  which 
belongs  to  Christianity,  and  differentiates  it  from  all 
other  religions.  Moses,  for  instance,  was  trained  and 
inspired  of  God  to  deliver  a  people  from  bondage, 
and  organize  them  into  a  nation,  and  to  disclose  to 
them  the  law  under  which  they  should  live.  He 
spoke  as  he  had  "been  spoken  to,  and  revealed  that 
which  had  been  revealed  to  him.  Nothing  was  self- 
originated;  it  was  all  from  God.  But  we  never 
think  of  Christ  as  inspired  in  any  such  sense  as  this. 
He  simply  stands  there,  and  utters  His  word,  and 
does  His  deed,  and  straightwa}-  the  impression  seizes 
us  that  we  are  witnessing  a  manifestation  of  God. 


CHRIST  THE  YEA  OF  GOD  41 

Dr.  Schaff,  in  a  very  suggestive  paragraph,  puts 
forward  the  thought  that  the  best  reason  discoverable 
for  calling  Christ  the  Logos  —  the  Word  —  is  that  He 
is  the  revealer  and  interpreter  of  God  in  all  which 
relates  to  our  salvation.  John,  he  adds,  "places  the 
supreme  dignity  of  Christ,  as  the  Eternal  Word,  the 
author  of  the  world,  the  giver  of  life  and  light,  the 
fountain  of  grace  and  truth,  the  only  perfect  ex- 
pounder of  God,  at  the  head  of  his  gospel,  because 
without  this  dignity  Christianity  would  sink  to  a  po- 
sition of  merely  relative  superiority  to  other  religions, 
instead  of  being  the  absolute  and,  therefore,  the  final 
religion  for  all  mankind."  In  our  Christianity  we 
have,  not  an  evolution  from  Judaism,  but  a  fresh  and 
advance  revelation  of  God.  In  beholding  Christ, 
beams  of  a  supernatural  light  flash  upon  us,  and  we 
have  a  new  and  higher  sense  of  the  character  of  God. 

Passing  from  this  general  statement  to  particulars, 
it  is  to  be  said  that  we  have  not  followed  Christ  the 
full  length  to  which  He  went  in  taking  men  over 
into  a  new  conception  of  the  nature  of  God,  until  we 
have  observed  and  emphasized  the  unprecedented 
stress  He  laid  on  the  Divine  love,  and  the  waj^ 
wholly  original,  in  which  He  demonstrated  that  the 
compassion  of  God  is  measureless  and  flows  out  to 
mankind   in  boundless  currents. 

That  God  is  pure  is  one  of  the  early  ideas  of  re- 
ligion. This  idea,  as  we  have  seen,  was  largel}-  lost 
nut  of  the  conceptions  of  men.  But  it  was  amongst 
the  carlj^  ideas  of  God.     Almost   every  page   of    the 


42  CHRIST  ri/E  YEA  OF  GOD 

Old  Testament  flashes  with  the  Divine  holiness.  It 
is  in  the  law,  the  ceremonies,  the  promises,  the  ap- 
probations, the  punishments,and  whatever  else  there 
is  to  show  forth  the  character  of  the  Supreme  Being. 
This  idea  Jesus  illustrated  and  enforced.  Purit}^ 
righteousness,  holiness  were  great  words  with  our 
Lord.  "Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall 
see  God." 

Not  with  this  idea,  however,  did  He  stop.  While 
constantly  magnifying  holiness,  as  in  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount,  and  in  other  discourses,  by  showing  how 
interior,  how  penetrating,  how  wide-sweeping  are 
all  the  commandments.  He  also  showed  how  the  holi- 
ness of  God  is  warmed  and  illuminated  by  a  wealth 
of  affection  in  the  Divine  heart,  of  which  men  had 
only  the  vaguest  notion  until  the  Son  of  God  became 
incarnate,and  set  this  wealth  of  loving  interest  forth 
on  the  lip  and  in  the  life.  Not  till  Christ  came, and  in 
His  own  personality  made  the  world  see  and  feel  it, 
was  there  ever  any  adequate  comprehension  of  the 
length  and  breadth  and  height  and  depth  of  the 
love  of  God.  Prophets  had  said  it,  psalmists  had 
suncf  it,  devout  souls  had  feit  it,  but  the  overwhelm- 
ing demonstration  of  it  awaited  the  matchless  scene 
of  the  Son  of  God  dying  on  the  Cross  of  Calvary. 
Take  this  word  "Father" —  our  "  Heavenly  Father." 
Max  Mueller  has  said  that  he  finds  "Heavenly 
Father"  to  be  a  name  for  God  among  all  the  original 
Aryan  peoples,  and  that  he  traces  the  name  to  the 
ancient    mythologies    of    India,    Greece,   Italy    and 


CHRIST  THE   YEA  OF  GOD  43 

Germany.  But  it  has  been  shown  that  the  word 
"Father"  did  not  mean  in  this  early  use  what  it  came 
to  mean  under  Christian  teaching.  To  quote  once 
more  the  words  of  an  authority  so  eminent  as  Dr. 
Storrs:  "It  did  not  imply,  whatever  under  Stoicism 
it  did,  a  generative  paternity.  It  did  not  in  the  least 
imply  affectionate  paternity.  It  represented  suprem- 
acy only;  was  applied  by  poets  to  those  wliom  they 
honored;  by  slaves  and  clients  to  masters  and  pa- 
trons. The  idea  it  contained  when  applied  to  the  gods 
was  of  paramount  authority  —  superlative  dignity. 
But  Christianity  shows  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  in 
His  spirit  of  love  as  well  as  in  His  authorship  of  finite 
intelligence,  extending  to  all  who  are  born  of  His 
life,  and  becoming  intense  toward  those  who  seek 
moral  fellowship  with  Him.  To  them  He  gives  gifts, 
according  to  this  conception  of  things,  which  the 
mind  of  the  world  had  wholly  failed  to  attribute  to 
Him,  or  to  conceive  possible,  until  it  was  exalted 
and  instructed  by  Jesus  —  the  gift  of  His  own  thought 
not  only,  but  of  His  essential  and  renovating  spiritual 
power." 

To  the  same  effect  is  Bishop  Lightfoot.  Speak- 
ing of  the  use  of  the  word  "Father"  by  the  Stoics  in 
such  sublime  hymns  as  Cleanthes  has  left  us,  where 
we  come  upon  the  expressions,  "Thine  Offspring  are 
We,"  "Do  Thou,  Father,"  and  others  like  them,  he 
sa3's:  "If  these  words  might  be  accepted  in  their 
first  and  obvious  meaning,  we  could  b.ardly  wish  for 
any   more  sublime    and  devout    expressions    of    the 


44  CHRIST  THE   YEA  OF  GOD 

creature  to  his  Creator  and  Father.  But  a  reference 
to  the  doctrinal  teaching  of  this  school  dispels  the 
splendid  illusion.  Stoic  dogma  empties  Stoic  hym- 
nology  of  half  its  sublimity  and  more  than  half  its 
devoutness.  This  father  in  heaven,  we  learn,  is  no 
personal  being,  all  righteous  and  all  holy,  of  whose 
loving  care  the  purest  love  of  an  earthly  parent  is 
but  a  shadowy  counterfeit.  He  —  or  It  —  is  only  an- 
other name  for  Nature,  for  necessity,  for  fate,  for 
the  universe.  Just  in  proportion  as  this  theological 
doctrine  of  the  school  is  realized,  does  its  liturgical 
language  appear  forced  and  unnatural.  Terms  de- 
rived from  human  relationships  are  confessedly  very 
feeble  and  inadequate  at  best  to  express  the  person 
and  attributes  of  God;  but  only  a  mind  prepared  by 
an  artificial  training  could  use  such  language  as  I 
have  quoted  with  the  meaning  which  it  is  intended 
to  bear.  To  simple  people  it  would  be  impossible  to 
address  fate,  or  necessity,  or  universal  nature,  as  a 
father,  or  to  express  toward  it  feelings  of  filial  obe- 
dience and  love."  Does  not  the  thought  grow  upon 
us  that  he,  and  he  only,  who  has  seen  Jesus  Christ 
hath  seen  the  Father? 

It  is  a  vast  addition  and  precious  above  price  —  this 
which  has  been  made  to  the  stores  of  the  moral  and 
spiritual  wealth  of  mankind  by  the  new  nearness  into 
which  the  Father  has  been  brought  to  all  discerning 
souls  by  the  disclosures  of  the  Son  of  God.  In  a 
sense  only  dimly  and  hesitatingly  suspected  until 
God  became  manifest  in  the  person  of  His  Son,  and 


CHRIST  THE   YEA  OF  GOD  45 

the  Son  interpreted  Him  to  the  world,  was  it  discov- 
ered that  God  is  immanent  in  all  facts  —  transcendent, 
but  still  immanent  —  and  in  all  laws  and  in  all  life; 
and  that  He  is  immanent  to  instruct,  and  to  guard, 
and  to  guide,  and  to  purify,  and  to  save  unto  the 
uttermost  all  who  come  unto  Him  through  Christ. 
He  is  immanent  in  love. 

a.  In  this  view  of  Christ  as  the  Yea  of  God,  or 
the  seal  of  all  His  promises  and  the  afflrmation  oj 
His  thought  and  character ,  there  is  something  as- 
sured and  positive  to  zvhich  we  can  cling. 

Christ  is  not  a  guess.  He  is  not  a  vague  uncer- 
tainty. Pie  is  not  a  fascinating  but  illusive  dream. 
He  is  a  teacher  sent  of  God,  —  sent  to  tell  us  of  God, 
to  open  the  way  to  God.  Through  Him  God  comes 
to  us,  and  pours  His  light  and  love  in  upon  our  souls; 
and  we  have  rest  in  sure  and  everlasting  verity. 
Our  hands  find  their  way  into  God's  hand,  and  we 
hold  and  are  held. 

One  of  the  most  suggestive  and  stirring  sections  to 
be  found  in  the  writings  of  Thomas  Carlyle  is  that 
in  "Sartor  Resartus,"  in  which  he  throws  out  his 
thoughts  under  the  successive  headings,  in  three  suc- 
cessive chapters,  of  The  Everlasting  JVo,  Center  of 
Indifference,    The  Everlasting  Yea. 

It  is  the  story  of  a  struggling  soul's  experience, 
told  as  only  this  great  Scotchman  would  be  likely  to 
tell  it,  when  first  fairly  confronted  with  the  problem 
of  its  own  existence,  and  feeling  under  the  bonds  of 
its  own  being  to  come   to  some   sort  of  rational   and 


46  CHRIST  THE   YEA  OF  GOD 

definite  conclusion  about  the  matter.  The  first  im- 
pulse was,  of  course,  to  question.  Then,  when  the 
answers  to  these  questions  did  not  come  fast  enough, 
or  were  not  satisfactory,  the  impulse  was  to  deny. 
Along  this  path  the  descent  was  sure,  if  not  easy, 
down  into  the  depths  of  utter  negation. 

But  the  point  of  special  interest  and  pertinacy  is 
that  after  all  the  beating  back  and  forth  with  ques- 
tions of  doubt  and  denial ;  after  all  the  settling  down 
into  the  determination  to  fret  no  more  over  the  liigh 
concerns,  but  to  lie  still,  like  a  poor  baffled  bird  with- 
in the  bars  of  its  cage,  and  let  things  turn  out  as  they 
might,  and  destiny  be  what  it  would,  there  are  yet 
impulses  within  the  soul,  or  influences  without  the 
soul,  or  both  cooperant,  which  force  one  up  and  out 
of  his  mood  of  negation,  and  out  of  his  mood  of  in- 
difference, and  drive  him  on,  provided  the  reason 
and  conscience  are  not  wholly  thwarted,  until  he  has 
standing  on  the  high  tableland  where  the  earth  is 
solid  beneath  his  feet,  and  the  sky  is  clear  over  his 
head,  and  he  has  knowledge  —  living, personal, sweet 
—  of  Him  who  is  behind  all  the  stars,  and  who  is 
also  not  far  from  any  one  of  His  earthly  children. 

This  is  a  lesson  of  vast  moment.  With  all  his  men- 
tal vagaries  and  shortcomings,  Carlyle  had  the  wit 
to  see  that  this  universe  has  truth  at  the  core  of  it, 
and  he  kept  on  sa3ang  so  to  the  end.  Men  might 
fling  out  their  objections  into  the  face  of  shining 
worlds,  and  close  their  ears  against  all  voices  from 
afar,  and  shut  their  eyes  against  flaming  visions;  but 


CHRIST  THE   YEA   OF  GOD  47 

it  would  amount  to  nothing.  No  soul,  so  this  man 
felt,  and  so  millions  on  millions  of  this  race  of  ours 
have  found,  can  rest  in  an  attitude  of  negation  and 
denial.  No  soul  can  feed  itself  into  strength  and 
beauty  and  peace  on  negation  and  denial.  The 
region  where  the  answer  to  every  question  is  No,  is 
not  a  region  of  life,  but  of  moral  and  spiritual  death. 
Men  cannot  build  on  Nay.  If  they  build  at  all,  build 
any  sort  of  enduring  structure,  it  must  be  on  Yea. 
We  are  in  a  universe  of  affirmations.  Yea  is  written 
everywhere  across  earth  and  sky.  The  world  under 
our  feet  is  Ye3.  The  sun,  flooding  all  our  atmos- 
phere with  light,  and  kissing  every  valley  and  plain 
and  hillside  into  beauty,  is  Yea.  The  stars,  circling 
in  their  orbits  and  greeting  each  other  across  the 
spaces,  are  Yea.  The  human  soul,  made  for  truth 
and  made  for  life,  is  Yea.  God  over  all  and  in  all 
is  Yea.  As  face  answereth  to  face,  so  the  cry  of 
the  soul  for  yea  is  answered  by  the  yea  of  God  in 
Christ.  In  Him  is  Yea,  and  because  He  is  Yea  we 
can  rest  in  Him  forever. 

b.  In  this  vicxu  oj  Christ, too, as  the  yea  of  God,  or 
the  seal  oJ  all  His  f)romises  and  the  affirmation  of  His 
thought  and  character,  there  is  something  clear  and 
-positive  and  helpful  for  us  to  commend  to  others. 

Not  only  is  God  so  certified  to  us  in  Christ  that 
we  can  build  the  structure  of  our  immortal  hopes  on 
Him;  but  God  is  so  certified  to  us  in  Christ  that  we 
can  take  Him  and  put  Him  under  souls,  and  make 
Him  the  foundation,  sure  and   immovable,  of    their 


48  CHRIST  THE   YEA  OF  GOD 

immortal  hopes.  God  in  Christ  is  as  clear  as  the  sun- 
light,and  as  self-demonstrative,  and  we  can  speak  of 
Him  with  as  much  assurance.  God  in  Christ  is  as 
positive  as  the  law  of  gravitation,  and  we  can  talk  of 
Him  and  commend  Him  with  all  the  confidence  with 
wliich  scientists  speak  of  the  mysterious  force  w^hich 
holds  the  globe  in  compactness,  and  keeps  stars  and 
systems  of  stars  moving  on  in  majestic  harmony. 
God  in  Christ  is  eternal  truth. 

This  is  what  men  want.  It  is  not  alone  what  they 
need,  but  what  they  want  and  will  welcome.  At 
times  it  does  not  seem  so;  but  in  any  ferge  generali- 
zation it  will  be  discovered  that  men  desire  some- 
thing clear,  something  positive,  something  vital, 
something  which  will  be  light  to  darkened  souls,  and 
bread  to  hungry  souls,  and  water  to  thirsty  souls, 
and  life  to  souls  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins.  In  the 
long  run  it  will  be  found  that  what  men  have  an  ear 
for  is  not  the  nay  of  doubt,  but  the  yea  of  God. 
Fancies,  no  matter  how  beautiful,  conjectures,  no 
matter  how  plausible,  vagaries,  speculations,  denials, 
negations,  are  not  the  materials  with  which  souls  are 
built  up  into  solid  and  symmetrical  proportions.  It 
is  not  the  nay  of  men,  but  the  yea  of  God  with  whicli 
human  hearts  are  to  be  purified  and  filled  with  nobler 
aspirations,  and  with  which  human  societ}^  is  to  be 
renewed  and  exalted  to  its  high  estate.  It  may  be 
entertaining,  but  there  is  no  such  foolish  beating  of 
the  air  as  standing  in  pulpits  and  sawing  back  and 
forth  at  guesses  and  criticisms   and   empty  specula- 


CHRIST  THE  YEA  OF  GOD  49 

tions.  God  in  Christ  is  living,  breathing  truth.  God 
in  Christ  is  the  light  of  the  world,  because  He  is  the 
light  of  individual  souls. 

No  man  who  has  ever  read  the  Gospels  with  a  half- 
open  eye  can  have  failed  to  see  how  positive  Christ 
was  in  all  His  preaching.  He  was  a  yea, and  not  a  nay 
preacher.  He  put  forth  certainties,  and  not  doubts. 
God,  the  heavenly  Father — what  a  verity  He  was 
to  the  Son  of  God!  Our  sinfulness  —  was  there  ever 
any  question  about  it  in  the  speech  of  Jesus?  Our 
peril  in  consequence  of  our  sinfulness — what  word 
ever  fell  from  the  lips  of  the  Great  Teacher  to  war- 
rant one  in  thinking  he  might  go,  all  unconcerned, 
masquerading  and  full  of  frolic,  out  into  eternity? 
The  necessity  of  being  born  again  —  did  He  not  say 
it  even  to  the  circumspect  and  reputable  Nicodemus? 
The  love  of  God  full,  free,  abounding,  — did  He  not 
dwell  on  it  and  magnify  it  from  beginning  to  end? 
Truth  to  endure  forever;  justice  at  the  heart  of  things ; 
divine  compassion  enfolding  the  race  like  an  atmos- 
phere and  holding  the  world  in  its  arms;  life,  death, 
heaven,  hell,  judgment,  responsibility,  duty;  how  to 
please  God  ;  how  to  develop  the  image  9f  God  in  which 
we  were  made;  how  to  realize  the  end  of  our  being 
and  make  sure  of  heirship  to  the  everlasting  inherit- 
ance —  these  were  the  themes  of  Jesus.  Not  the  un- 
certainties, but  the  certainties. 

On  this  basis  it  is  worth  while  to  preach  and  to  list- 
en to  preaching.  For  what  music  it  makes  for  the 
heart,  bewildered  and  sore  distressed,  when  this  In- 


50  CHRIST  THE  YEA  OF  GOD 

carnate  Yea  of  God  answers  back  with  a  yes  which 
has  no  tone  of  equivocation  or  misgiving  in  it  to  each 
eager  question  sent  up  to  Him!  Have  we  a  Father 
in  heaven  who  knows  us,  who  loves  us,  who  is 
thoughtful  of  us  and  who  broods  over  us  in  the  ten- 
derness of  a  Divine  pity?  Yea.  May  we,  weak 
and  finite  as  we  are,  come  into  a  sense  of  sonship 
and  know  this  heavenly  Father,  and  walk  in  His 
blessed  fellowship?  Yea.  If  one  has  wandered  afar 
and  has  only  a  bruised  and  darkened  and  defiled  soul, 
is  there  any  way  in  which  he  may  return  to  loyalty, 
and  find  purity  and  peace  and  joy  once  more?  Yea. 
After  the  struggle  is  all  over  and  one  has  served  this 
Divine  Master  to  the  best  of  his  ability,  is  there  for 
him, — not  in  virtue  of  his  own  merit,  but  through 
the  infinite  riches  of  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus,  —  is  there  for  him  a  life  out  beyond,  ampler, 
better,  in  every  way  more  glorious  than  this  earthly 
life,  to  be  lived  in  the  open  presence  of  Him  who 
redeemed  us  to  Himself?  Yea.  It  is  all  yea.  The 
incarnation  is  yea;  the  teaching  is  yea;  the  cross  is 
yea;  the  resurrection  is  3'ea;  the  Holy  Spirit  is  yea; 
the  promises  are  yea;  the  hopes  are  yea;  the  beckon- 
ing splendors  are  yea;  the  rewards  are  yea.  Trusting 
in  Jesus  and  moving  forward  hand  in  hand  with 
Him,  we  come  in  His  own  wise  time  to  the  crowning 
yea  of  all  where  we  stand  face  to  face  with  God,  and 
have  experience  of  the  joys  and  fellowships  and  glo- 
ries of  the  kingdom  from  which  we  go  no  more  out 
forever. 


AWAKING  TO  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

^Izaake    up    rii^htcously,   and  sin   not:  for  some   have   no 
knozvledge  of  God.     i  Cor.ij:j^. 

This  is  the  new  version.  In  substance  it  does  not 
dilYer  from  the  old,  which  rings  out  with  its  more 
familiar  and  somewhat  sharper  watch-cry:  "Awake 
to  righteousness,"  But  whatever  the  form, the  mean- 
ing is  the  same,  and  there  is  no  escaping  it.  From 
the  whole  passage  it  is  perfectly  evident  that  what 
the  Apostle  desires  is  to  arouse  men  to  a  new  and 
clearer  moral  discernment,  and  to  set  them  forward 
into  a  new  and  higher  moral  condition.  There  are 
men  who  are  asleep,  so  Paul  conceives  it,  to  right 
things.  He  means  to  have  them  awakened  out  of 
their  sleep,  —  stirred  and  shaken,  if  need  be,  till  they 
open  their  eyes  to  the  light,  and  their  lives  are  brought 
under  the  power  of  truth  and  goodness  and  piirit}', 
and  their  whole  being  stands  for  what  God  approves. 

A  pertinent  exhortation  back  in  old  Corinth  eiglit- 
een  hundred  years  ago,  it  is  still,  here  and  every- 
where, a  pertinent  exhortation ;  and  my  voice  this 
morning  is  to  be  pitched  to  the  same  key:  Azvaking 
to  rightcoicsncss. 

Passing  at  once  to  the  business  in  hand   suggested 

by  this  theme, 

51 


52  AWAA'/XG  TO  RIGHTEOUSNESS 

I.      It  is  to  be  observed^  in  the  first  ^lace^  as  a  Jact 
of  -profound  significance  that    all  the  disclosures    of 
God  which  are  viade  to  ns^  and  all  the  move^nents  of 
God  in  ti-pon  the  world  and  among  men  which  we  can 
discover^  are  steadily  and  stoutly  in  the    direction   of 
righteousness. 

Righteousness  is  God's  wish  concerning  us.  In 
trying  to  be  righteous  we  come  into  accord  with  the 
will  of  God,  and  we  fall  into  line  with  the  vast  array 
of  moral  forces  which  are  abroad  in  the  universe. 

The  studies  and  conclusions  of  the  late  Matthew 
Arnold  are  not  without  their  value  here.  His  well 
known  definition  of  God  is:  "The  Power,  not  our- 
selves, which  makes  for  righteousness."  To  me  this 
has  never  seemed  a  satisfactory  definition,  but  it  has 
the  merit  of  admitting  the  conception  of  righteous- 
ness to  be  fundamental  to  the  nature  of  God,  and 
also  the  uniform  tendency  to  righteousness  which 
there  is  in  all  the  out-goings  of  God. 

He  says  further:  "The  word 'righteousness'  is  the 
master  word  of  the  Old  Testament.  'Keep  judg- 
ment,and  do  righteousness.'  'Cease  to  do  evil,  learn 
to  do  well.'  'Offer  the  sacrifice,  not  of  victims  and 
ceremonies,  but  of  righteousness.'" 

He  adds  to  this:  "The  great  concern  of  the  New 
Testament  is  likewise  righteousness;  but  righteous- 
ness reached  through  particular  means  by  the  power 
of  Christ."  A  sentence  which  sums  up  the  New  Tes- 
tament; so  he  avows,"  and  assigns  the  ground  where- 
on the  Christian  Church  stands    .     .     .   is  this:    'Let 


AIIUAVXG  TO  RIGHTEOUSh'ESS  53 

every  one   that   nameth   the  Name  of   Christ  depart 
from  iniquity.'" 

According  to  Mr.  Arnold's  estimate,  conduct  is 
three-fourths  of  life;  the  object  of  religion  is  con- 
duct, and  cot]duct  such  as  meets  the  requirements 
of  the  Bible,  is  but  another  name   for  righteousness. 

As  already  intimated,  this  is  imperfect  teaching.  It 
is  vague  and  illusive.  It  is  not  like  the  instruction  of 
Jesus —  not  like  it  either  in  matter  or  tone.  It  is  not 
fitted  to  stir  men  out  of  their  moral  stupors,  like  the 
clear  ringing  words  of  Moses  and  Isaiah  and  Paul. 
Still  it  is  much  to  have  the  frank  admission, and  even 
the  claim,  of  a  man  who  furnishes  not  a  little  of  the 
stock  in  trade  of  our  small  dealers  in  doubt  that  the 
Bible, both  in  its  revelation  of  God  and  in  the  whole 
sweep  of  its  precepts,  lays  such  tremendous  stress  on 
righteousness.  He  seems  to  advance  a  step  and 
clinch  this  view  of  the  matter  by  saying  he  supposes 
nobody  will  deny  that  the  Old  Testament  is  filled 
with  the  word  and  thought  of  righteousness. 

Whether  denied  or  not,  this  is  the  fact.  It  is  the 
fact  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  it  is  the  fact  of 
the  New  Testament.  The  uniform  pressure  .of 
the  Word  of  God  is  toward  pure  hearts  and  clean 
hands.  Study  the  Decalogue, — the  core  and  aim 
of  all  the  Commandments  will  be  found  to  be  right- 
eousness. Study  the  words  of  Prophets  and  Apostles; 
it  is  the  same,  —  they  all  look  forward  to  righteous- 
ness. Providence,  in  the  long  run,  with  the  history 
and  destiny  of  nations  for  its  letters,  spells   out  right- 


54  Aii:!A7Xu   TO  KlUirfEOUSNESS 

eousness.  The  Spirit  convicts  of  sin  and  leads  on  by 
way  of  truth  into  righteousness.  The  moral  law  and 
the  moral  sense  meet  in  a  common  approval  of  right- 
eousness. The  old-time  view  was:  "Lord,  who  shall 
sojourn  in  thy  tabernacle?  Who  shall  dwell  in  th}' 
hoi}'  hill?  He  that  walketh  uprightly,  and  worketh 
righteousness,  and  speaketh  truth  in  his  heart."  The 
new  time  and  everlasting  view  is:  "Not  every  one 
that  saith  unto  me,  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my 
Father  which  is  in  heaven."  From  beginning  to  end, 
and  all  through,  both  in  letter  and  in  spirit,  it  is  — 
God  intent  on  righteousness. 

This  much,  then,  is  clear  and  beyond  gainsaying. 
The  inmost  aim  of  God,  the  whole  sweep  of  the  di- 
vine influence,  the  whole  sweep  of  the  divine  laws, 
are  toward  an  enduring  moral  rectitude.  God 
is  pitiful.  The  Christ  was  foretold  to  be  one  who  would 
not  break  the  bruised  reed, nor  quench  the  smoking 
flax.  But  if  He  bends  down  tenderly  over  the  err- 
ing, as  He  does,  it  is  that  He  may  lift  them  up  and 
set  them  right.  If  He  feels  infinite  compassion  for 
the  impure,  as  He  does,  it  is  that  He  may  reach  their 
hearts  with  the  breath  of  the  Spirit  and  cleanse  them 
into  whiteness.  If  He  goes  out  lovingly  after  wrong- 
doers, as  He  does,  it  is  that  He  maj-  persuade  them 
to  turn  from  their  iniquities  to  holiness.  The  intent 
of  God  —  an  intent  so  plain  that  nobody  can  well  miss 
it  —  is  to  induce  men,  as  Daniel  significantly  puts 
it,  "to  break  off  their  sins  by  righteousness." 


AlVAA'/NG  TO  RIGHTEOUSNESS  55 

Not  by  any  searching  can  we  find  out  God  unto 
perfection.  He  is  higher  than  all  heights,  deeper 
than  all  depths.  At  the  same  time  it  is  impossible 
to  get  the  least  hint  of  God  without  discovering  that 
iniquity  and  uncleanness  ofTend  Him,  while  right 
conduct,  cultivated  and  carried  on  till  it  has  become 
crystallized  into  pure  and  lofty  character,  gives  Him 
supreme  satisfaction.  "Be  ye  hol}^  for  I  am  holy." 
Be  the  feelings  of  God  toward  the  unrighteous  what 
they  may;  be  the  consequences  of  breaking  away 
from  righteousness  what  they  may;  be  the  methods 
of  getting  back  into  righteousness  what  they  may ;  and 
there  can  be  little  room  for  doubt  on  any  of  these 
questions;  still  the  thing  which  suits  God,  — which 
has  the  divine  affirmation  on  it,  and  which  God  wants 
all  men  everywhere  to  illustrate,  is   righteousness. 

II.      Turning  the  subject  about  and  looking  at  it 
now  fro7n  our  hutnan  standpoint,  it  may  be  said,  as 
a  second  consideration  oy  weight,    that  our  own  wel- 
fare and  efficiency  demand  a  large  measure  of  right- 
eousness. 

As  has  just  been  seen,  a  religion  which  is  worth 
anything  in  God's  sight  must  be  a  religion  which 
registers  itself  in  righteousness.  It  is  exactly  so  with 
men.  A  religion  to  be  of  any  solace  to  our  own 
hearts,  or  of  any  value  and  force  in  the  estimation 
of  the  world, must  be  a  religion  which  registers  itself 
in  righteousness.  Men  refuse  to  be  swayed  by  a 
faith  which,  though  it  bring  the  knees  down  in  de- 
vout adoration,  does  not  relax  the  selfish  grip  of  the 


5G  Aiy.lA'IXG  TO  RIGHTEOUSNESS 

hand;  which,  though  it  roll  from  the  lips  in  the  most 
resonant  tones,  or  be  chanted  with  the  most  artistic 
grace  of  delicate  organ  notes,  does  not  restrain  the 
tongue  from  Ij'ing,  nor  keep  back  the  feet  from  paths 
of  wickedness.  Faith, apart  from  works,  so  we  are 
told,  is  dead.  Being  dead,  men  say,  and  they  ought 
to  say:  Let  the  thing  be  buried.  A  faith  which  does 
not  put  itself  forward,  as  by  a  kind  of  seed-instinct, 
into  feelings  and  thoughts  of  righteousness,  and  into 
righteous  conduct,  is  a  delusion  and  a  snare.  To 
the  men  who  hold  it,  and  to  the  world  at  large,  this 
kind  of  faith  is  altogether  mischievous.  Nothing 
does  so  much  to  furnish  plausible  excuses  to  men 
who  are  conscious  of  their  wrong  attitudes  and  their 
ill-desert,  but  who  are  yet  reluctant  to  move  forward 
into  right  relations  with  God,  as  a  hollow  faith." 
Nothing  does  so  much  to  warrant  candid  men  in 
questioning  whether  all  religion  be  not  an  empty 
farce  and  superstition. 

To  be  somewhat  more  definite  in  the   statement  of 
the  case: 

I.      There  is  need  of  righteousness  as  against    a 
mere  dead  orthodoxy. 

It  is  a  misfortune  when  things  which  naturally  be- 
long together  have  to  be  set  over  against  each  other 
in  sharp  contrast.  It  would  be  difficult  to  put  too 
much  emphasis  on  the  importance  of  right  views. 
Neither  in  political  nor  religious  spheres  do  men 
gather  grapes  of  thorns.  The  Apostle  was  neither 
beating  the  air,  nor  expending  his  energy  on    an  in- 


AWAKING  TO  RIGHTEOUSNESS  57 

significant  matter,  when  he  urged  the  maintenance 
of  the  pattern  of  sound  words.  Nevertheless  it  does 
not  follow  from  this  that  all  right  views  will  fructify 
in  right  lives,  and  that  there  never  will  be  any  break 
in  the  connection  between  correct  opinions  and  cor- 
rect conduct. 

It  was  the  same  seed  which  the  sower  held  in  his 
hand  and  scattered  broadcast.  But  it  was  only  the 
seed  which  fell  into  good  ground  which  brought  forth 
fruit.  If  it  had  not  been  good  seed  it  would  not  have 
borne  fruit,  even  in  good  ground.  Yet,  being  good 
seed,  it  was  scattered  all  in  vain  on  the  wayside,  in 
the  stony  places,  and  among  thorns.  The  fault  was 
not  in  the  seed;  the  seed  was  just  what  it  ought  to 
have  been;  the  fault  was  that  there  was  no  right  re- 
ception of  it,  or  right  cultivation.  The  seed  was 
good,  still  it  came  to  nothing. 

There  is  more  or  less  of  orthodoxy  which  never 
becomes  righteousness.  It  is  orthodox}^  and  as  such 
it  is  to  be  upheld  and  cherished;  but  right  in  theor}', 
it  comes  to  nothing  right  in  the  life.  This  is  the  open 
shame  of  it.  There  is  little  heresy  so  fatally  harmful. 
Heresy  in  opinion  is  bad.  Sooner  or  later,  as  was 
stated  a  little  back,  whether  in  philosophy  or  states- 
manship or  religion,  it  will  come  to  disastrous  explo- 
sion. But  the  heresy  of  dishonesty;  the  heresy  of 
meanness;  the  heresy  vvhich  shields  itself  from  meet- 
ing just  obligations  by  quibbles  which  would  make 
a  sh3^ster  blush;  the  heresy  which  mounts  the  house- 
top and   bawls,    "Lord,    Lord,"  and  yet  lends  the 


58  AJVAKLVG  TO  RIGHTEOUSNESS 

brain  to  the  cunning  schemes  of  the  devil,  and  per- 
mits the  hand  to  do  the  devil's  service,  and  the  feet 
to  run  on  the  devil's  errands,  — what  shall  be  said  of 
men  guilt}'  of  this  sort  of  heres}'?  Just  what  Jesus 
said:  "Woe  unto  you,  scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypo- 
crites, for  yo.  tithe  mint  and  anise  and  cummin,  and 
have  left  undone  the  weightier  matters  of  the  law, 
judgment  and  mercy  and  faith;  but  these  ye  ought 
to  have  done,  and  not  to  have  left  the  other  undone." 

It  is  m}'  constant  desire  that  men  believe.  I  want 
them  to  believe  sincerely  and  earnestly  and  stoutly. 
To  that  end  with  whatever  power  belongs  tome  I  am 
steadily  working.  To  me  it  seems  clear  that  there  are 
sufficient  grounds  on  which  to  base  a  faith  of  this  sort 
in  all  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Word  of  God. 
For  all  this  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten,  that  even  devils 
may  believe, and  may  believe  to  the  point  of  trem- 
bling, and  yet  be  devils  still.  Just  as  fast  and  just 
as  far  as  faith  gets  on  into  faithfulness,  and  right 
views  take  form  in  right  living,  shall  we  realize 
God's  thought  concerning  us,  or  be  in  a  condition 
to  make  our  views  effective,  and  to  render  the  best 
service  to  all  good  causes  in  our  day  and  generation. 
True  believing  tends  to  true  living,  but  true  living 
is  the  indispensable  seal  of  true  believing. 

2.  /;/  the  second  -place,  it  is  to  be  righteousness 
as  against  mere  emotion. 

Here  again  the  task  is  an  ungracious  one.  For 
one  does  not  wish  even  to  seem  to  speak  in  dispar- 
agement of  religious  feeling.   Warmth  is  good.    Re- 


AIVAA'IXG   TO  RIGI/7-E0USNESS  59 

ligion  has  been  defined  to  be  morality  touched  with 
emotion.  If  moralitj'  be  thought  of  as  conformity  to 
the  law  of  God, the  definition  is  not  far  out  of  the 
way.  Religion  is  quite  likely  to  lose  some  of  its 
force,  and  luuch  of  its  beauty  and  attractiveness,  if 
it  has  no  pulse  of  feeling  in  it.  We  all  like  the  se- 
vere accuracy  of  the  multiplication  table;  we  also 
like  the  freshness  and  fragrance  and  charming  sym- 
metry of  the  rose.  The  sun  knows  how  to  give  out 
both  light  and  heat.  We  want  both.  The  brook  is 
none  the  less  useful  in  turning  mills  because  it  sings 
as  it  flows.  Bird^  would  not  be  birds  if  they  did 
not  yield  to  their  own  impulses  of  delight, and  fill  the 
air  with  their  morning  melodies.  Religion  appeals 
to  the  heart.  If  it  be  genuine  it  kindles  the  heart, 
quickens  all  the  sensibilities,  and  puts  an  unwonted 
glow  into  the  speech. 

But  to  feel  religious  emotion,  and,  within  due  lim- 
itations, to  give  expression  to  religious  emotions  is 
one  thing.  To  feel  religious  emotion,  and  to  go 
soaring  off  on  the  wings  of  religious  rapture,  with- 
out any  apparent  appreciation  of  the  obligations  and 
duties  of  religion,  is  quite  another  thing.  It  is  this 
latter  which  is  reprehensible.  We  want  emotion; 
but  we  do  not  want  it  to  be  all  gush  and  no  princi- 
ple, all  sentiment  and  no  obedience.  To  revel  in  the 
poetry  of  religious  feeling,  and  to  forget  all  about 
the  cup  of  cold  water  to  the  thirsty,  is  to  mock  the 
teaching  of  the  Master. 

Little  danger  is  there  of  pressing  this    distinction 


60  AirAA'IXG  TO  AVG//'r£OrSX£SS 

too  urgently.  There  is  a  time  for  tears.  There  is 
a  time  to  let  the  heart  speak  right  out  of  its  own  rich 
experience.  There  is  a  time,  not  onl}'  to  yield  to  it, 
but  to  help  swell  the  tide  of  holy  enthusiasm.  Miriam 
was  not  afraid  to  sing  her  song  of  triumph.  The 
Psalmist  was  not  afraid  to  let  the  chord  of  his  own 
heart  respond  freely  to  the  touches  of  inspiration. 
Paul  was  not  afraid  to  tell  of  dreams  and  visions 
and  extraordinary  exaltations  of  soul.  It  is  only 
when  all  the  energies  are  expended  in  these  direc- 
tions,and  much  is  felt  and  nothing  is  done, that  emo- 
tion becomes  offensive.  The  world  has  no  fancy  for 
a  religion  which  runs  all  to  mouth.  It  is  not  safe  to 
put  confidence  in  religion,  unless  the  moral  side 
keeps  pace  with  the  emotional  side,  and  an  un3'ielding 
stress  is  laid  on  righteousness. 

Madame  Roland,  on  her  wa}' to  the  guillotine, lifted 
her  eyes  to  the  ugly  instrument  of  death,  and  ex- 
claimed: "O  Liberty,  what  crimes  have  been  com- 
mitted in  thy  name!"  Often  one  cannot  help 
appropriating  the  words,  and  cr3'ing  out:  "O  Relig- 
ion, what  inconsistencies  and  wrongs  and  horrid  in- 
iquities have  been  coinmitted  in  thy  name!"  The 
corrective  is  to  lay  emphasis  on  righteousness,  and 
to  see  10  it  that  pious  feelings  are  not  divorced  from 
holy  acts.  With  an  eminent  fitness  some  one  has 
called  these  emotional  Christians  the  "sensitive 
plants"  of  the  church.  They  turn  this  way  and  that 
in  response  to  ever}-  influence  which  plays  upon  them, 
and  they  are  easily  wrought  up  into   spasms   of   sur- 


AIVAA'LVG  TO  RIOnTEOUSXESS  61 

face  sympathy;  but  they  bear  little  fruit.  What  they 
need  is  to  be  established  in  the  truth  and  habit  of 
righteousness. 

3.  In  the  third  -place  it  is  to  be  riglitcoiisness 
as  against  mere  worldly  policies  and  methods. 

This  is  the  same  as  sa3Mng  it  is  to  be  righteousness 
after  the  divine  standard,  and  not  a  righteousness 
inade  up  of  the  shreds  and  patches  of  the  hour's  latest 
conceit.  An  old  writer,  of  distinction  in  his  day, 
has  said  the  laws  of  men  are  not  our  rule.  "Men 
make  laws,"  so  he  tells  us,  "as  tailors  do  garments 
—  to  fit  the  crooked  bodies  the}^  serve  for."  Men 
make  laws  to  suit  the  humors  of  the  people  who  are 
to  be  governed  by  these  laws.  "It  is  God's  prerog- 
ative," he  adds,  "to  give  law  to  the  conscience. 
Human  laws  are  good  to  establish  converse  with  men  ; 
but  too  short  to  establish  communion  with  God. 
Therefore  we  must  consult  with  the  rule  which  is  the 
law  of  the  Lord,  if  we  would  not  come  short  of  true 
blessedness." 

It  cannot  be  too  early  and  definitely  settled  that 
there  is  but  one  measure  of  righteousness  for  us.  The 
world  ma}'  have  a  thousand  standards;  Christian  men 
can  have  but  one,  and  by  that  one  they  must  abide. 
No  matter  how  others  buy  and  sell;  no  matter  how 
others  fall  into  the  currents  of  the  world  in  seeking 
promotion  and  happiness;  no  matter  how  others 
shrink  back  when  burdens  are  to  be  borne,  and  fidel- 
ity to  truth  means  loss  and  pain  ;  those  of  us  who 
believe  in  God  and  are  trying  to  do  the  will  of  God, 


62  AWAKING  TO  RIGHTEOUSNESS 

are  to  be  Daniels  in  integrit}',  and  to  hold  fast  our 
uprightness  whatever  foes  conspire  and  whatever 
perils  threaten.  There  are  never  wanting  those  who 
are  read}-  to  weave  webs  of  sophistry  with  which 
to  entangle  our  judgment,  and  to  sing  songs  fitted 
to  lull  the  conscience  into  easy  acquiescence  with 
evil  suggestions:  "What's  the  harm?"  and  "What's 
the  harm?"  But  we  must  remember  it  is  God  with 
whom  our  account  lies,  and  stand  like  a  rock. 

This,  then,  is  to  be  the  stamp  of  our  righteous- 
ness. Righteousness  like  this  will  give  us  some  real 
effectiveness  and  make  our  Influence  a  positive  force 
for  good.  In  other  words,  if  our  righteousness  is 
vital  instead  of  being  a  bundle  of  mere  lifeless  opin- 
ions—  no  matter  how  correct  in  form;  if  our  right- 
eousness is  practical,  and  does  not  exhaust  itself  in 
the  vaporings  of  transient  emotion  and  tender  effer- 
vescence; if  our  righteousness  has  primarjM'eference 
to  God  and  seeks  to  adjust  itself  to  the  laws  and 
commandments  of  God  rather  than  to  echo  ideas 
and  follow  methods  which  happen  to  be  current  in 
fashionable  circles,  and  in  the  marts  of  trade;  and 
so  is  a  genuine  righteousness,  and  not  an  empty  si- 
militude of  righteousness,  there  will  be  untold  good 
in  it  for  ourselves  and  for  the  world. 

For  this  kind  of  righteousness  is  character,  and 
character  always  counts.  If  it  be  known  that  a  man 
will  not  lie,  nor  cheat,  nor  meanl}'  falter,  nor  evade 
any  responsibility  which  falls  to  his  lot;  but,  where- 
cver  he  is  put,  whether  in  a  bank  or   store,    whether 


AlVAKIXC  TO  RIGHTEOUSNESS  63 

in  the  management  of  a  large  estate  or  a  great  cor- 
poration, whether  in  executive  office  or  legislative 
hall  or  on  the  bench,  will  be  square  and  clean  and 
manly,  he  will  be  sure  to  be  a  positive  moral  force. 
These,  are  the  men  who  preserve  and  foster  the  moral 
sense  of  a  community,  and  who  keep  the  wheels  of 
civilization  moving  forward  on  the  lines  of  a  true 
progress. 

It  is  men  after  this  type,  too,  who  are  invaluable 
to  a  city  or  a  state.  Take  the  men  of  unimpeachable 
moral  character  and  of  high  moral  standards  and 
methods  out  of  a  community,  and  though  there  may 
be  many  millionaires  left,  and  many  men  left  compe- 
tent to  push  great  material  enterprises  to  successful 
issues,  and  men  of  genius  to  utter  thoughts,  and  men 
of  fashion  to  keep  the  surface  of  life  gay  and  festive, 
the  tendency,  and  the  increasing  tendency,  in  society 
will  be  back  toward  shallowness  and  barbarism.  The 
moral  element  is  the  element  preservative  of  all  other 
elements  in  the  individual  and  the  nation. 

It  is  common  for  us  to  say:  ''This  man  has  large 
capacity  for  public  affairs;  how  much  we  owe  to 
him!"  True.  "This  man  has  rare  business  foresight 
and  skill;  how  much  we  owe  to  him!"  True  again. 
But  how  rarely  does  it  occur  to  us  to  say:  "This 
man  has  delicate  moral  instincts,  an  integrity  which 
is  never  misled,  nor  caught  in  the  cunning  traps  of 
hood-winking  casuists;  how  much  we  owe  to  hhuP'' 
Yes,  to  hiin,  indeed.  For  men  of  this  cast,  in  virtue 
of  their  simple  being,  lift  homes   and   social    circles 


64  AWAKING  TO  RIGHTEOUSNESS 

and  the  manner  of  conducting  business  and  people 
and  all  humanity  nearer  to  God.  What  do  we  read? 
Was  it  for  lack  of  orators  like  Demosthenes  and 
Webster  to  illuminate  great  subjects  and  to  stir  vast 
masses  at  vsill  that  the  city  was  swept  out  of  exist- 
ence? Was  it  for  lack  of  painters  like  Raphael  and 
Guido  Reni  to  lay  their  colors  on  canvas  or  fling 
them  up  against  ceilings  in  forms  of  immortal  beauty? 
Was  it  for  lack  of  sculptors  like  Michael  Angelo  or 
Thorwaldsen  to  chisel  figures  out  of  rough  marble 
quarries  so  much  like  the  human  that  the  perpetual 
wonder  is  they  do  not  speak?  Was  it  for  want  of 
capitalists  to  undertake  important  public  improve- 
ments and  push  them  on  to  a  consummation  in  which 
all  the  citizens  should  take  a  justifiable  pride?  Not 
at  all.  It  was  for  lack  of  a  fczv  rtghteotts  men  that 
Sodom  was  destro3'ed. 

Let  us  have  men  of  skill;  men  of  enterprise; 
explorers,  inventors,  tradesmen,  manufacturers;  let 
us  have  men  who  are  not  daunted  by  such  stupen- 
dous undertakings  as  ocean  telegraphs,  and  Mount 
Cenis  tunnels, and  Suez  and  Nicaragua  canals,  and 
Rock}^  Mountain  railroads,  and  Brookljm  bridges. 
But  above  all  let  us  have  men  who  know  how  to  be 
righteous,  and  who  esteem  righteousness,  and  who 
infuse  the  fine  aroma  of  righteousness  all  abroad, 
and  who  put  the  stamp  of  righteousness  on  every- 
thing they  touch. 

There  is  no  cry  of  the  hour  so    imperative   as   for 
men  of  righteousness.     The  vices  of  Corinth  abound 


AlFAK/NG  TO  RIGHTEOUSNESS  G5 

Still.  The  human  nature  of  the  old  Greek  is  the  hu- 
man nature  of  the  Saxon  and  the  Celt.  The  canker 
of  corruption  which  consumed  ancient  nations, 
threatens  modern  nations,  and  it  will  be  just  as  fatal 
unless  arrested.  Men  are  sowing  to  the  wind;  the 
harvest  will  be  whirlwind.  The  sad  and  fatal  carni- 
val of  lying  and  stealing  and  forgery  and  drunken- 
ness and  robbery  and  arson  and  licentiousness  and 
murder  goes  on, and  the  woe  of  wickedness  is  ever}-- 
where.  The  boundary  lines  of  nations  are  made  the 
bulwark  of  scamps  and  scoundrels;  and  men  with  the 
brand  of  guilt  on  their  foreheads  flee  abroad,  that 
under  the  shelter  of  foreign  flags  they  may  defy  the 
laws  they  have  broken  at  home,  and  feast  on  their 
ill-gotten  gains.  Mobs  take  the  law  into  their  own 
hands,  and  irresponsible  leaders  overawe  the  regu- 
larly constituted  authorities,  and  check  the  currents 
of  industry  at  their  pleasure.  Surely  it  is  a  time  for 
making  protests  in  the  interest  of  virtue,  and  boldly 
exalting  the  banner  of  righteousness. 

We  need  not  shut  our  eyes  to  other  demands  and 
duties.  Let  the  work  of  teaching  go  on.  Let 
knowledge  grow  from  more  to  more.  Let  the  singers 
sing  their  songs  and  the  artists  reproduce  their  lofty 
thoughts  on  canvas,  in  poems,  in  sculpture  and  in 
beautiful  and  impressive  material  structures.  Let 
the  historians  uncover  and  disclose  the  majestic  past. 
Let  the  scientists  unlock  the  mysteries  of  nature,  and 
bring  out  the  secrets  which  stars  and  lilies  and  rocks 
and   water-drops  and  fire-mist  hold  in  their  jealous 


m  Air.lA'LVG  TO  RIGHTEOUSNESS 

keeping.  Let  men  sow  and  reap;  buy  and  sell;  sail 
the  seas  and  lakes  and  rivers;  keep  plane  and  trowel 
and  loom  and  forge  in  motion;  subdue  forests,  and 
rear  houses,  and  make  laws,  and  perform  all  the 
functions  of  a  cultivated  and  energetic  people.  Still 
so  long  as  there  is  a  vestige  left  of  injustice  and  im- 
morality and  crime,  there  must  be  an  incessant  iter- 
ation of  the  grand  old  word  —  Righteousness. 

III.  Our  viczv,  however.,  is  not  com-plete,  but  is 
still  laeking  in  development  at  a  most  vital  ^oint  until 
it  is  added,  that,  as  the  sense  of  the  obligation  and 
the  habit  of  righteousness  disappear  zvhen  God  drops 
out  of  mind,  so  the  way  to  restore  the  sense  of  the 
obligation  and  the  habit  of  righteousness  is  to  ac- 
quaint men  with  God,  and  bring  them  into  loyalty 
to  the  will  of  God. 

Observe  the  language  of  the  passage:  "Awake 
up  righteously  and  sin  not;  for  some  have  no  knowl- 
edge of  God.''"' 

Right  there  lies  the  open  secret  of  the  moral  stu- 
pidity out  of  which  men  are  to  be  aroused,  and  the 
sin  from  which  they  are  to  be  turned, — they  have 
ceased  to  know  God  in  any  true  and  living  way.  God 
is  not  in  all  their  thoughts.  He  has  been  ruled  out 
and  dismissed. 

PauTs  idea  was  that  there  is  not  only  an  intimate 
but  a  vital  relation  between  a  knowledge  of  God  and 
true  morals.  In  this  he  was  surely  right.  A  true 
ethic  has  its  root  in  a  true  view  of  God.  Attempt  to 
get  a  motive  for    moral    conduct,  or  a  sanction   for 


AJr.lA'LVG   TO  RIGHTEOUSXESS  67 

moral  conduct,  in  anything  short  of  the  Infinite 
Reason,  and  sooner  or  later  the  stress  of  responsi- 
bilit}' for  right  conduct  will  cease  to  be  felt,  and  men 
instead  of  saying:  "We  ought,"'  will  be  saying: 
"We  wish,"  or  "We  will."  Blind  men,  that  is,  to 
God,  divorce  men  from  a  sense  of  obligation  to  do 
the  will  of  God,  and  the  door  to  all  sorts  of  delin- 
quencies and  vices  swings  wide  open.  Men  will  soon 
be  going  in  andout,  indulging  passions  and  appetites, 
betraying  innocence,  committing  wrongs,  and  work- 
ing a  thousand  mischiefs,  with  only  the  slightest  com- 
punction. 

If,  therefore, righteousness  is  to  be  secured  and  de- 
veloped and  illustrated,  it  is  to  be  by  turning  about 
and  retracing  the  paths  along  which  men  have  walked 
in  becoming  lost  to  righteousness.  There  will  be 
no  clear  perception  of  moral  distinctions,  and  no  deep 
and  irresistible  conviction  of  moral  obligations,  till 
these  distinctions  are  seen  in  the  light  of  the  face  of 
God,  and  these  obligations  are  felt  to  be  none  other 
than  the  pressure  of  the  finger  of  God. 

For  this  knowledge  of  God,  personal,  practical, 
there  is  no  possible  substitute.  In  some  quarters  it 
is  fashionable  to  lay  great  stress  on  art,  as  though 
galleries  opulent  in  fine  pictures  and  exquisite  statuar}^ 
were  pledges  of  purity.  But  is  history  so  easily  for- 
gotten ?  When  and  where  did  art  achieve  any  such 
desirable  results?  Was  it  in  Athens?  Athens  had 
art,  but  where  was  the  purity  ?  Recall  how  licentious- 
ness thrives  under  the  very  eves  of  the  rarest  art  col- 


(;>  .  A'llA A7\a  TO  j^:jgJ/7'Eocisn£sS 

lections  in  Europe.  Paris  and  Vienna  would  not  be 
what  they  are,  were  it  in  the  power  of  art  to  elevate 
and  conserve  the  morals  of  a  people.  In  some  quar- 
ters learning  is  looked  upon  as  an  adequate  remedy 
for  existing  and  threatening  evils.  It  would  be  diffi- 
cult to  overestimate  the  importance  of  universal  ed- 
ucation. But  it  is  not  in  learning  to  insure  righteous- 
ness. Neither  is  it  in  the  wisest  political  economics. 
Neither  is  it  in  the  accumulation  of  vast  wealth,  es- 
pecially if  the  wealth,  as  the  experience  of  ages  shows 
is  likely  to  be  the  case,  becomes  unequally  distributed. 
Laws  may  be  made  as  wholesome  as  possible,  and 
still  it  is  not  in  laws.  By  no  one  of  these  methods, 
nor  by  all  of  them  together,  are  men  and  communi- 
ties of  men  held  to  the  white  line  of  a  lofty  and  en- 
during righteousness. 

Given  the  indispensable  condition  of  a  disposition 
to  recognize  God,  and  to  obej^  God,  and  all  these 
things  help.  Pictures  help.  Music  helps.  Good 
theories  of  government  help.  Good  laws  help. 
Wealth, to  flow  out  freel}^  in  the  direction  of  public 
improvement  and  general  beneficence,  helps  im- 
mensely. 

But  when  men  permit  God  to  drift  awa}'  out  of 
their  thoughts,  and  no  more  questions  are  asked 
about  the  will  of  God,  and  no  more  apprehensions 
are  felt  about  the  consequences  of  disobeying  God, 
it  will  not  be  long  before  the  consciences  of  men  will 
become  drowsy  and  flabby,  and  righteousness  will 
be   overthrown  in  the    street.      It   is   root   and   fruit. 


Al'/AAVNG  TO  RIGHTEOUSNESS  69 

The  tap-root  of  righteousness  runs  back  to  God.  If 
the  root  be  cut,  or  in  any  way  disconnected,  right- 
eousness will  wither  and  die. 

This  makes  the  whole  business  plain.  The  way 
to  promote  righteousness  is  to  promote  a  knowledge 
of  God.  As  righteousness  is  disintegrated  and  de- 
stroyed in  the  individual,  and  through  the  individual 
in  the  state,  by  paralyzing  the  faith  of  man  in  God; 
so  righteousness  is  secured  and  built  up  by  bringing 
men  under  the  sweet  and  wholesome  constraint  of 
the  Divine  Will.  He  who  is  undermining  the  con- 
fidence  of  men  in  a  divine  source  of  authorit}',  and 
in  a  divine  order  of  things  in  the  world,  whether  in 
private  conversation  or  on  the  platform,  or  through 
tracts  and  editorials  and  books,  is  fitting  them  to  run 
off,  in  no  long  time,  into  innumerable  crimes  and 
vices  and  crudest  wrongs.  He  who,  in  any  meas- 
ure, and  by  any  method,  whether  it  be  the  mother 
with  her  child  at  her  knee,  or  the  teacher  face  to 
face  with  his  class,  or  the  lecturer,or  the  author,  or 
the  preacher,  is  establishing  men  in  the  faith  of  God, 
and  quickening  their  sense  of  dependence  on  God, 
and  making  them  feel  more  and  more  the  obligations 
they  are  under  to  obey  the  commands  of  God,  is  aid- 
ing individuals  not  only  to  realize  the  highest  type 
of  excellence  knovv^n  to  the  world,  but  is  brightening 
the  prospect  for  all  humanity.  It  is  not  merely  piety 
which  is  subserved,  it  is  good  morals  as  well,  when 
men  can  be  induced  to  look  up  and  say,  lovingly  and 
sincerely  and  with  the  whole  soul:  Otir  Father 
■who  art  in  heaven. 


MYSTERY  IN  THE  NEW  BIRTH. 

Hoiv  can  these  things  be?    John  j:  g, 

NicoDEMUs  was  perplexed  by  the  teaching  of  our 
Lord  concerning  the  regeneration  of  the  soul.  Others 
since  his  day  have  experienced  the  same  difiiculty, 
and  the  question  asked  by  this  "  man  of  the  Pharisees" 
has  often  been  on  the  lips  of  earnest  searchers  after 
the  truth.  It  seems  a  fit  thing, therefore, to  follow  along 
on  the  line  of  the  interrogation  here  submitted,  and 
devote  the  time  we  are  able  to  spend  together  to  a 
consideration  of  the  subject  of  Mystery  in  the  New 
Birth. 

This  ruler  of  the  Jews  who  had  come  to  Jesus  by 
night  is  not  to  be  blamed  for  his  desire  to  obtain  a 
better  understanding  of  what  had  been  told  him.  In 
all  healthy  souls  the  desire  to  know  is  instinctive. 
Nature  provokes  questions.  Men  ask  questions. 
The  disposition  is  general  to  get  at  facts,  and  the 
causes  and  secrets  of  facts. 

The  father  who,  in  his  impatience,  petulantly  ex- 
claims to  his  inquisitive  child:  "I  do  wish  3'ou 
wouldn't  ask  so  many  questions —  ",  often  giving  a 
peculiar  sting  to  the  remark  by  calling  them  '"'■Joolish 
questions^''''  is  not  only  recreant  to  his  sacred  duties 
as  a  parent,  but  he  is  at  war  with  the  divine  arrange- 


M\  'S  TER  V  LV  THE  NE IV  BIR  TH  71 

ment.  It  is  a  necessity  of  its  nature,  —  God  has 
made  it  so  —  that  every  intelligent  child  should  be  a 
persistent  questioner. 

Further  along  in  life  this  investigating  impulse  is 
of  incalculable  value.  It  is  the  spring  of  progress. 
Out  of  it  come  discoveries,  inventions,  explorations, 
developments  in  art  and  science,  forward  movements 
in  politics  and  law  and  the  institutions  of  society. 
It  is  a  fruitful  and  beneficent  impulse.  Inspiration 
recognizes  and  appeals  to  it.  The  language  of  the 
Word  is  '■''Search.'''^  If  there  be  those,  as  we  are 
sometimes  told  there  are,  who  still  take  the  ground 
that  there  is  no  call  to  think,  or  that  for  any  reason 
it  is  perilous  to  think,  it  is  very  clear  they  have  no 
warrant  for  their  position  in  tlie  Bible.  "What  think 
ye?"  is  a  challenge  which  fell  from  our  Lord's  own 
lips. 

This  questioning  can  be  carried  too  far.  It  can  be 
carried  beyond  reasonable  and  helpful  limits.  In 
dealing  with  religious  problems  it  often  is.  Instead 
of  following  the  desire  to  know  straight  on  to  its 
proper  conclusion,  and  there  resting,  as  in  other  de- 
partments of  investigation,  men  often  give  way  to  the 
desire, and  keep  on  asking  and  asking,till  they  slide 
off  into  the  spirit  of  over-curiousness  which  turns  a 
thing  end  for  end,  and  in  and  out,  and  weighs  and 
gauges  and  tests,  and  yet  is  never  satisfied.  This  is 
not  studying,  it  is  torturing  truth.  It  is  not  investi- 
gating, it  is  crucifying  truth.  To  deal  so  with  truth 
is  to  distrust  and  dishonor  truth. 


72  MYSTERY  I.V  THE  NEW  BIRTH 

Men  do  not  get  on  in  this  way,  either.  An  end- 
less scrutiny  imparts  no  headway.  Under  this  pro- 
cess people  are  quite  likely  to  become  more  and  more 
uncertain,  and  very  sure  to  grow  dry  and  shriveled 
of  soul. 

While,  as  has  already  been  said,  Nicodemus 
is  not  to  be  blamed  for  his  desire  to  come  into  a  bet- 
ter understanding  of  what  had  been  told  him,  still 
his  question  has  in  it  just  a  little  of  this  over-inquisi- 
tive tone.  It  is  a  push  out  into  the  realm  of  the  un- 
explored and  baffling.  Christ  had  said  to  him  that 
he  must  be  born  anew,  or  born  from  above.  To  give 
him  an  idea  of  the  way  the  Spirit  works  in  renewing 
the  soul,  He  had  brought  forward  the  analogy  of  the 
wind.  Men  feel  the  force  of  the  wind;  they  see  the 
effect  of  it;  but  whence  it  cometh  and  whither  it  go- 
eth  are  things  hidden.  So  is  the  new  birth.  But 
this  was  not  enough.  Nicodemus  wanted  all  doubt 
removed,  and  all  perplexities  involved  in  the  change 
untwisted  and  straightened  out.  Everything  must  be 
clear  and  intelligible  in  the  path  along  which  his 
feet  were  to  tread,  or  he  would  not  move  forward  at 
all.  The  underlying  thought  with  him  seems  to 
have  been  that  mystery  bars  advance;  and  that  in- 
ability to  understand  fully  the  mode  in  which  God  in- 
fluences a  soul  in  renewing  its  spiritual  life  is  a  valid 
reason,  or  a  reason  at  any  rate  over  which  one  may 
long  hesitate,  for  not  accepting  the  fact  of  such  influ- 
ence. But  this  attitude,  taken  by  him  whom  our 
Lord  called  "the  teacher  of  Israel,"  and  held  still  by 
not  a  few  reflecting  people,  cannot  be  maintained. 


MYSTERY  IN  THE  NEW  BIRTH  73 

I.  For^  to  begin  with,  we  cannot  fully  understand 
anything. 

If  this  is  to  be  the  ground  on  which  we  will  con- 
sent to  recognize  a  fact  or  a  truth  —  that  we  know  it 
all  through  and  through  —  we  can  recognize  nothing. 
Or  to  put  it  the  other  way,  if  we  feel  bound  to  op- 
pose everything  which  we  do  not  know  through  and 
through,  know  in  all  its  causes  and  relations  and 
methods  —  then  life  for  most  from  start  to  end  will  be 
an  open  and  pronounced  dissent,  and  we  shall  be 
saying  "no,"  "no,"  to  every  reality  in  the  universe. 

I.  Take,  first  oj  all,  what  seems  to  be  widest  re- 
moved Jroni  any  possible  question  —  the  simple  fact 
of  the  existence  of  things. 

We  do  not  any  of  us  hesitate  to  be  very  positive 
in  the  opinion  that  things  do  exist.  We  look  abroad 
and  we  say  the  earth  is.  We  look  up  and  we  say 
the  sun  is.  Trees,  brooks,  forests,  oceans,  moun- 
tains—  these  are.  Speculative  philosophy  has  called 
in  question  the  existence  of  matter.  Common  sense 
never  does.  Common  sense  has  the  utmost  confidence 
that  stars  and  continents  and  bodies  are  realities. 
But  when  the  attempt  is  made  to  strike  through  and 
get  at  the  further  fact  of  the  how  of  it  all,  men  are 
brought  to  pause.  There  are  any  number  of  theories 
as  to  the  origin  of  matter.  Some  say  it  is  self-existent. 
Over  any  given  form  of  matter  some  have  at  hand 
the  word  "evolution."  Some  go  behind  all  this  and 
utter  the  word  —  God.  This  is  the  solution  most  of 
us  accept.      God  created  the  heavens  and   the   earth. 


74  MYSTERY  IN  THE  XEIV  BIRTH 

This  is  the  why  of  it.  The  question  of  how  is  still 
unanswered.  How  did  things  which  were  not  come 
to  be?  Who  has  the  facuUy  to  tell  us,  or  the  faculty 
to  comprehend  it?  Here  things  are.  To  dispute 
these  open  palpable  facts  is  a  sign,  if  not  of  down- 
right insanit}',  yet  of  philosophical  madness.  Not 
to  act  on  the  basis  of  these  facts  is  criminal  folly. 
But  the  simple  matter  of  the  iiiode  in  which  things 
existinor  have  come  to  exist  —  how  about  this?  Who 
will  give  us  light? 

2.  From  the  fact  of  simfle  existence  advance  to 
the  fact  of  organic  existence. 

The  forester  plants  an  acorn ;  it  swells  into  an 
oak.  How?  How  is  it  that  the  mere  bit  of  matter 
which  a  child  can  hold  between  thumb  and  finger 
manages  to  rise  into  the  magnificent  proportions  of 
the  solid  tree?  How  does  it  start?  How  does  it 
know  when  to  start?  What  makes  it  think  of  start- 
ing? How  from  earth  and  air  and  water  and  sun- 
shine does  it  contrive  to  absorb  the  materials  of 
growth,  and  the  strength  to  hold  steady  front  against 
storm  and  tempest?  How  has  so  much  dead  matter 
in  the  soil  become  so  much  living  force  in  the  oak? 
How  have  all  these  tons  of  timber  in  trunk  and  branch 
got  themselves  lifted  up  there  so  high  in  air?  How 
is  this  cunning  process  of  distribution  carried  on, 
and  so  successfully  that  stem  and  limb  and  leaf  and 
bud  and  fruit  receive  each  the  supplies  fitted  to  nour- 
ish them?  We  say,  we  have  to  say,  God  gives  the 
life-germ  of  the  tree;     He  furnishes  the    elements  of 


M }  'S 1 ER  \ '  IX  THE  NE 1 1 '  £/A'  TH  Tij 

development ;  and  He  determines  the  laws  of  develop- 
ment. But  all  this  is  the  cause  of  what  vv'e  see.  The 
question  now  up  is  the  question  of  how.  How  can 
a  plant  grow  't  How  can  matter  with  only  an  acorn 
to  start  from  ever  get  up  into  a  majestic  oak?  Per- 
haps there  is  somebody  who  can  tell  us.  If  so,  he 
ma}^  be  assured  the  world  wants  to  hear  him. 

3.     Move  forward     still    another    step    into   the 
sphere  of  the  rational  and  moral. 

How  manifold    the    wonders!     How    elusive    the 
secrets! 

Here  is  the  will.  .Everybody  is  familiar  with  the 
control  exercised  by  the  will  over  the  bodily  organs, 
and  how  these  organs  are  used  as  instruments  of  the 
will.  By  simple  volition  a  man  lifts  his  hand,  holds 
it  suspended,  moves  it  back  and  forth,  and  lets  it  fall 
again.  By  simple  volition  energy  is  infused  into 
the  hand  to  hold  the  plow,  to  shove  the  plane,  to 
guide  the  helm,  to  use  the  pen,  and  to  strike,  if  need 
be,  sturdy  blows  for  country.  But  what  is  this  mys- 
terious power?  Where  does  it  reside?  How  does 
it  come  into  this  communication  with  physical  or- 
gans? We  look  wise  and  say  the  nerves  are  the 
sensitive  wires  along  which  these  messages  are  trans- 
mitted from  brain  to  finger-tip.  Yes.  But  what  are 
the  nerves?  What  makes  the  nerves  so  sensitive  and 
responsive?  How  does  this  strange  sovereignt}'  of  a 
thought  or  wish  or  purpose,  come  into  such  instant 
ascendency  over  the  whole  commonwealth  of  the 
body?     There  is  never  a  voluntary  movement  with- 


7()  MYsnm-  Lv  THE  xew  birth 

out  this  operation  of  the  will  upon  the  organs  of  mo- 
tion. How  is  it  all?  Who  will  explain  to  us  the 
mysteries  of  it? 

Here  is  the  incinojy.  This  man  is  three  score  and 
ten.  These  sixty  or  seventy  years  have  taken  him 
through  many  changing  scenes  and  events.  He  sits 
♦^o-daj'  with  whitened  locks,  thinking  it  will  not  be 
long  before  he  is  gathered  to  his  fathers.  His 
thoughts  run  forward  to  tlie  rest  that  remaineth,  and 
to  the  new  scenes  which  will  break  on  his  vision  out 
beyond  these  earthly  horizons.  But  as  he  is  able  to 
look  forward  in  anticipation,  so  also  may  he  turn  his 
gaze  backward.  By  a  simple,  easy  transition  he 
covers  all  the  spaces  of  the  intervening  years,  and 
takes  his  place  amidst  the  associations  and  surround- 
ings of  his  childhood.  Tlie  sacred  incidents  of  the 
past  rush  in  upon  him,  and  he  stands  once  more  in 
the  hallowed  circle  of  the  old  sweet  home.  He 
grasps  the  "vanished  hand"  of  a  father.  He  gives 
back  a  sainted  mother's  kiss.  He  fills  his  wonted 
place  at  the  table.  He  is  one  of  a  happy  group  who 
gather  about  the  hearth-stone,  where  he  listens 
again  to  the  old  familiar  stories.  He  roams  the  fields 
and  the  woods,  and  mingles  in  all  the  favorite  sports 
of  the  long-gone  years.  He  hears  the  voices,  sees 
the  faces,  and  recalls  the  characteristic  expressions 
of  friends  man}'  years  dead.  The  garden,  the  brook, 
the  well,  the  orchard,  the  hills, — they  are  all  there, 
fresh  in  the  mind  once  more.  The  pulse  beats 
quicker;  the  eyes  flash   with   a   new  brightness;  old 


Mi 'S TER  y  IN  THE  KE  W  BIR  Til  77 

associations  revive,  and  the  laughing  and  the  weep- 
ing, the  old  perplexities  and  the  triumphs  of  the 
early  days,  become  almost  fresh  experiences  of  the 
life. 

It  makes  no  difTerence  v^'here  this  old  home  may 
have  been.  Back  amidst  the  mountains,  the  apple- 
trees,  the  forests  and  streams,  the  sweet  little  ham- 
lets and  villages  of  dear  New  England;  or  across  the 
seas  amidst  the  lawns  and  hedgerows  and  hollies  and 
ancient  mounds  and  grand  cathedrals  of  Old  Eng- 
land; or  away  in  rugged  Scotland;  or  in  France  or 
Italy  warm  with  a  sunshine  which  needs  only  to  be 
caught  and  fixed  to  become  song  and  picture,  it  is 
all  the  same.  Memory  is  the  magician  whose  wav- 
ing wand  takes  us  instantly  back  to  the  sacred  spot 
of  our  childhood  and  3'outh. 

Again  how  is  it?  There  is  no  doubt  about  the 
fact  of  what  memory  can  do.  But  how?  How  is 
it  that  this  man  of  sevent}'  years  can  take  hold  of  the 
silken  thread  of  what  we  call  memory,  and  find  his 
way  back  through  the  alleys  and  chambers  cf  the 
labyrinth  of  his  vanished  hours,  till  he  stands  again 
in  the  presence  of  the  old  scenes  and  associates,  and 
locks  hands  with  men  and  women  and  little  children 
who  have  long  since  gone  to  their  final  reward?  The 
function  of  what  goes  by  the  name  of  memor}';  ways 
of  strengthening  the  memory;  the  pleasures  and 
pains  associated  with  the  process  of  recalling  our 
yesterdays,  we  know  well  enough.  In  other  words, 
when  we  ask  what  memory  is,  and  what  its  uses  are. 


78  MYSTERY  IN  THE  NEW  BIRTH 

and  how  to  make  it  more  serviceable,  the  answer  is 
forthcoming.  But  when  we  ask  —  How?  How  can 
all  this  be  done?  nobody  volunteers  to  give  infor- 
mation. 

The  same  is  true  of  all  mental  operations.  Ques- 
tions can  be  asked  concerning  every  act  of  the  mind 
which  no  man  can  answer.  Mysteries  are  every- 
where. The  realm  of  nature  is  full  of  them.  The 
realm  of  thought  is  full  of  them. 

Hence  the  man  who  lays  down  the  principle  that 
he  will  not  act  until  he  fully  understands  everything 
entering  into  his  action,  will  never  act  at  all.  The 
act  by  which  a  man  becomes  a  child  of  God  in  a  new 
and  distinct  sense  through  the  inbreathing  of  the 
Divine  Spirit  is  not  singular  in  that  it  involves  mys- 
teries; this  it  shares  in  common  with  all  nature. 
Consequently  he  who  rejects  the  new  birth  on  the 
ground  that  there  are  mysteries  in  it  —  just  as  our 
Lord  said  there  are  —  must  reject  everything.  He 
must  reject  the  fact  of  his  own  existence;  of  all  ex- 
istence; of  growth  and  all  such  facts  as  are  brought 
to  light  in  any  kind  of  intellectual  activity.  He  must 
act  as  no  sane  man  ever  does  act,  save  in  the  sphere 
of  his  religious  obligations  and  privileges. 

H.  In  the  second  place,  -while  we  cannot  Jjully 
understand  anything,  and  the  mode  in  which  God 
infittences  the  soul  in  regeneration  is  involved  in 
raystery,  the  fact  that  snch  influence  is  exerted  and 
that  under  this  injiuence  life  is  changed  and  made 
nezv  is  beyond  question. 


MYSTERY  IN  THE  NEW  BIRTH  79 

If  there  is  anything  in  human  experience,  or  hu- 
man histor}^  which  is  true,  it  is  true  that  the  hearts 
of  men  are  sometimes  wrought  upon  and  wholly  re- 
versed in  the  spirit  and  current  and  hope  of  them  by 
the  grace  of  God. 

I .      This  is  made  evident  in  altered  eharacter. 

There  are  transformations  of  character  so  sudden, 
radical  and  permanent,  that  we  are  sure  they  must 
have  been  brought  about  by  supernatural  influence. 
The  transformation  is  so  marked  that  it  calls  for  the 
power  of  God.  It  is  so  beneficent  that  it  can  be  ex- 
plained only  by  the  goodness  of  God. 

If  it  be  not  a  matter  of  experience  with  any  of  us, 
it  is  yet  a  matter  of  observation  that  such  changes 
do  take  place.  We  have  seen  voluptuousness  changed 
into  chastity.  We  have  seen  debauchery  changed 
into  temperance.  We  have  seen  irritability  grow 
patient.  We  have  seen  wasting  prodigality  be- 
come careful  economy.  We  have  seen  stinginess  and 
greed  give  way  to  a  sweet  habit  of  benevolence. 
We  have  seen  men  who  are  profane  and  reckless  fall 
under  deep  and  quick  conviction  and  take  their  places 
in  the  ranks  of  the  devout.  We  have  seen  morose 
and  savage  tempers  toned  down  into  childlike  soft- 
ness. We  have  seen  vice  expelled  from  hearts  where 
it  was  long  regnant,  and  virtue  enthroned.  We  have 
seen  men  who  were  proud  and  lawless  and  profligate, 
men  who  cared  nothing  for  divine  command,  and 
mocked  at  all  holy  things,  turned  about  and  trans- 
formed into  genuine  and  whole-souled  children  of 
God. 


so  MYSTERY  IN  77/E  NEW  BIRTH 

Take  an  instance  like  that  of  John  Newton.  Born 
in  London,  the  only  child  of  his  mother,  who  died 
when  her  boy  was  but  seven  3'ears  of  age;  a  sailor 
at  eleven;  impressed  and  taken  on  board  a  warship 
at  seventeen ;  a  deserter,  without  any  faith  in  God 
and  with  all  moral  restraint  thrown  off, caught, brought 
back,  degraded  to  the  lowest  position  and  flogged 
and  ironed,  at  twenty ;  in  the  service  of  a  slave-dealer 
on  the  African  coast,  and  lost  apparently  to  every- 
thing save  a  sense  of  his  own  wretchedness,  at  twenty- 
three;  a  slave-trader,  carr3'ing  hundreds  of  poor 
Negroes  from  their  native  land  to  the  West  Indies, 
before  he  was  thirty;  yet  through  the  grace  of  God 
in  Christ  this  man  was  made  a  new  creature,  and 
through  the  same  grace  of  God  in  Christ  one  of  the 
most  earnest  and  useful  servants  of  the  Lord  in  his 
day  and  generation.  His  epitaph,  written  by  him- 
self, tells  the  story  of  the  radical  transformation  he 
experienced:  ''John  Newton,  Clerk,  once  an  In- 
fidel and  Libertine,  a  servant  of  slaves  in  Africa,  was, 
by  the  rich  mercy  of  our  Lord  and  -Saviour,  Jesus 
Christ,  preserved,  restored,  pardoned,  and  appointed 
to  preach  the  faith  he  had  long  labored  to  destroy." 
It  was  not  by  a  process  of  reformation  merely;  it 
was  hy  a  process  of  regeneration  that  the  character 
of  Newton  was  transformed.  He  was  born  again,  — 
born  from  above;  and  nothing  else  will  account  for 
the  change  experienced  by  him  and  witnessed  in 
him. 

Take  the  instance  of  Paul.     Look  at  this  .nan  be- 


MYSTERY  IN  THE  MEW  BIRTH  81 

fore  and  after  the  journe}-  to  Damascus.  Compare 
the  two  in  their  dispositions  and  purposes.  One  of 
them  is  breathing  out  threatening  and  slaughter;  the 
other  is  breathing  out  supplication  and  thanksgiving 
and  praise.  One  of  them  is  exceeding  mad  against 
the  disciples  of  our  Lord;  the  other  joyfully  sub- 
scribes himself  the  "servant"  of  the  Lord.  Li  their 
feelings,  in  their  aims,  and  in  their  actions,  the  two 
men  are  as  wide  apart  as  the  poles.  The  change 
was  complete.  It  was  sudden.  It  was  not  a  growth. 
It  was  not  a  process  with  stages.  It  was  an  out-and- 
out  transformation.  It  was  a  revolution  in  all  the 
thoughts  and  plans  and  sympathies  and  intentions  of 
the  man.  It  was  as  instantaneous  as  a  blow.  It 
was  as  effective  as  a  fiat  of  God. 

It  is  no  use  to  say  the  men  in  whom  these  transfor- 
mations seem  to  have  been  wrought,  were  deceived 
in  what  had  occurred,  — they  were  not.  It  is  no  use 
to  saj^we  who  make  a  study  of  their  cases  are  de- 
ceived; we  are  not.  These  souls  came  under  a  Power 
not  ourselves,  which  makes  for  righteousness,  and 
they  knew  it.  They  knew  they  had  been  breathed 
upon  by  a  breath  out  of  heaven,  and  were  changed 
by  it.  Newton  was  not  deluded.  Neither  was 
Paul.  Nor  was  John  Wesle}^  nor  Martin  Luther, 
nor  Jonathan  Edwards,  nor  Pascal,  nor  Madame 
Guyon,  nor  Payson,  nor  Horace  Bushnell,  nor  Ly- 
man Beecher,  nor  Nettleton,  nor  Finney,  nor  Phil- 
lips Brooks,  nor  Spurgeon.  Hearts  do  come  under 
the  inliuence  of  God ;  and  they  are  purified    and  ex- 


S3  MYSTEin'  LV  THE  NEW  BIRTH 

alted  and  brought  into  new  relations  by  these  influ- 
ences. To  this  fact  millions  of  souls  are  glad  wit- 
nesses. 

2.  The  fact  is  made  still  further  evident  by  what 
men  succeed  in  doing. 

Men  do  what  they  neither  would  do  nor  could  do, 
were  they  not  under  an  influence  from  God,  and 
helped  and  sustained  by  the  grace  of  what  He  is 
able  to  do. 

In  consequence  of  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholo- 
mew, on  that  August  night  in  1572,  when  not  less 
than  35,000  souls  were  treacherously  slaughtered, 
and  the  dreadful  persecution  to  which  Protestants  in 
France  were  subjected  in  after  years, the  Huguenots 
were  forced  to  flee  into  all  sorts  of  places  for  refuge. 
They  were  only  too  happy  if  they  could  secure  shel- 
ter anywhere  from  the  fierce  storms  of  wrath  which 
burst  upon  them.  A  little  company  of  these  some- 
how found  their  way  up  into  a  natural  fastness  called 
Steinthal,  a  wild  district  in  the  Vosges  Mountains. 
Here  they  lived  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  or  more 
in  poverty  and  hardships  and  isolation.  They  were 
not  in  the  live  current  of  the  world's  thought  and 
progress,  and  thej'  knew  nothing  of  the  movements 
of  civilization.  Hence, as  would  naturall}'  be  expected, 
it  fared  ill  with  them. 

The  teachers  and  preachers  who  came  with  them 
into  this  secluded  and  sterile  spot,  and  their  imme- 
diate successors  had  long  been  dead.  Gradually  it 
came  to  pass  that  they  had  no  teachers  and  preachers. 


MYSTERY  m  THE  NEW  BIRTH  83 

Schools  worthy  of  the  name,  churches,  family  altars, 
the  influence  of  religious  sentiment  and  life,  were  all 
gone.  In  their  place  were  ignorance,  stolidity,  and 
a  degradation  which  was  not  only  pitiable  but  repul- 
sive. The  people  lived  in  cabins  and  huts.  There 
was  nothinsi  which  might  be  called  a  road  in  the  whole 
district.  In  the  short  summers  the}-  gathered  a  little 
food.  In  the  long  winters  the}?-  often  herded  with 
the  cattle  in  the  stables  for  warmth.  Outside  of  wild 
barbaric  tribes  it  would  have  been  hard  to  find  a  match 
to  the  material  and  moral  degradation  of  this  degen- 
erate colon}'  of  French  Huguenots. 

On  August  31,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1740,  at 
Strasburg,  in  Alsatia,  there  was  born  a  child  v^hose 
destiny,  in  the  providence  of  God,  was  to  be  closely 
interwoven  with  the  destiny  of  the  wretched  commu- 
nity just  described,  and  whose  name  was  to  become 
one  of  the  inspiring  and  cherished  names  of  history. 
The  child  grew  into  a  lad.  Under  wholesome  home 
training,  the  lad  became  an  earnest,  scholarly  boy. 
At  fifteen  he  entered  the  University  at  Strasburg. 
At  eighteen  he  was  a  Bachelor  of  Arts.  At  twenty 
he  had  been  ordained  to  the  gospel  ministry,  with  a 
view  to  service  in  the  Lutheran  church.  At  twenty- 
seven,  though,  as  has  been  said,  he  had  taken  upon 
himself  the  ordination  vows  of  the  ministry,  he  was 
still  in  his  study.  It  was  his  idea,  evidently,  that 
for  large  usefulness  there  must  be  faithful  and  patient 
preparation. 

At  this  period  in  his  career  a  humble    missionary, 


84  MYSTERY  LV  THE  NEW  BIRTH 

who  confessed  his  own  inability  to  gain  access  to 
them,  stood  before  him,  and  told  the  story  of  these 
wild  and  degraded  mountaineers.  On  the  basis  of 
his  story  he  made  an  appeal.  He  wanted  this  de- 
voted student  to  go  to  this  people  and  be  their  shep- 
herd. He  wanted  him  to  take  his  magnificent  mental 
endowments,  his  social  position,  his  wide  learning, 
his  culture,  his  hopes  of  promotion,  and  lay  them  all 
on  the  altar  of  a  communit}'  whose  one  bond  of  sym- 
pathy between  him  and  them  was  that  they  were 
both  human.  He  was  fitted  for  a  Professor's  Chair 
in  the  University  he  so  much  loved.  He  .had  the 
talents  and  the  training  to  justify  him  in  anticipating 
advancement  to  almost  any  place  open  to  the  men  of 
his  time.  He  was  asked  to  subordinate  it  all,  nay, 
to  consecrate  it  all  to  the  welfare  of  these  rude  men 
and  women  in  the  well-nigh  inaccessible  region  of 
Steinthal.      Could  much  more  be  asked? 

After  a  deep  and  earnest  struggle,  in  which  it  was 
made  clear  to  his  own  soul  that  the  call  which  had 
reached  him  was  the  call  of  God,  he  said  yes  and  went. 
He  became  their  spiritual  guide  and  teacher  and  friend. 
It  was  like  the  breaking  in  on  them  of  a  new  sun  in 
the  heavens.  It  was  like  the  changing  of  their  long, 
cold  winters  into  tropic  warmth.  It  was  like  the  broad- 
ening out  of  their  horizons  till  they  saw  the  re- 
splendent beauty  and  felt  the  pulse  of  the  great  world 
about  them.  Into  the  low  and  sluggish  life  of  this 
pitiable  people  he  poured  the  hot  and  stimulating 
blood  oi  his  own  choice  life.     The  place  was    deso- 


yl/ }  S  TER  V  IN  THE  NE  W  BIR  TH  85 

late  and  solitar}' ;  he  made  it  glad.  It  was  a  wilder- 
ness; at  his  touch  it  blossomed  like  a  rose. 

For  fifty-nine  years,  or  until  he  was  eighty-six 
years  of  age,  this  devoted  servant  of  Jesus  Christ  had 
hirf  home  amongst  these  people,  away  in  this  wild 
and  remote  district.  He  prayed  for  them;  he  taught 
them;  he  preached  to  them;  he  bore  their  burdens; 
he  toiled  with  his  own  hands  at  the  hardest  tasks, 
that  they  might  the  better  know  how  to  toil,  and  be 
the  more  willing  to  toil;  he  carried  them  in  his 
thought  and  heart,  as  only  one  can  who  has  caught 
the  vicarious  spirit  of  Jesus;  and  then,  abundantly 
ready  for  his  home-going,  he  heard  and  answered 
another  call  of  God,  and  went  up  to  dwell  in  the 
heights  of  the  New  Jerusalem. 

It  was  a  marvelous  record  the  man  made.  The 
vulgar,  the  despised  community  to  whom  he  was  in- 
troduced a  little  less  than  three  score  years  before 
his  final  retirement  from  them,  had  been  made  over 
new,  and  the  dominion  of  coarseness  and  vice  into 
whose  subjection  the}^  had  come,  had  given  way  to 
a  dominion  of  gentle  manners  and  good  morals. 
Many  had  come  into  a  personal  experience  of  the 
saving  grace  of  God  in  Christ.  There  were  Chris- 
tian churches.  Christian  homes.  Christian  schools. 
There  were  other  institutions  designed  to  be  helpful 
in  a  Christian  way.  There  was  a  Christian  public 
sentiment.  The  community  had  risen  to  the  point 
where  it  had  pride  in  itself,  —  self-respect  and  aspi- 
rations.  One  saw  everywhere  the  evidences  of  thrift 


86  MYSTEliV  IN  THE  NEW  BIRTH 

and  comfort.  Moreover  this  work  was  done  in  such 
wise  and  thorough  fashion  that  it  abides.  Seventy 
years  after  the  death  of  this  servant  of  God  the 
fountains  he  opened  are  still  flowing. 

But  who  was  this  large  soul?  this  lad  of  brilliant 
promise?  this  successful  student?  this  man  of  stalwart 
strength,  and  heroic  purpose,  and  fine  culture? 
this  devoted  and  beloved  pastor?  this  ex- 
ponent of  human  brotherhood?  this  brave  phil- 
anthropist, and  uncompromising  advocate  of  the 
rights  of  all  to  to  a  fair  chance  in  life?  Very 
fitly  may  the  name  be  spoken  in  tones  of  love 
and  reverence,  for  it  was —  'yohn  Frederick   Oberlin. 

Now  how  account  for  a  life  and  a  service  like  this? 
Can  it  be  done  on  any  other  theory  than  that  the 
man  was  transformed,  and  made  what  he  was,  by  the 
renewing  grace  of  God  in  Christ?  If  we  look  at 
him  from  the  point  of  his  talents,  and  what  he  might 
have  done  with  them,  or  from  the  point  of  his  labors, 
the  amount  of  them,  the  place  and  condition  of  them, 
and  the  temper  in  which  they  were  conducted,  can 
we  escape  the  inference  that  his  soul  must  have  been 
touched  and  quickened  by  divine  influence?  Can 
we  get  away  from  the  conclusion  that  he  must  have 
had  experience  of  God,  and  did  his  work  guided  by 
the  power  of  God? 

What  other  adequate  motive  can  be  conjectured? 
Ease?  There  was  no  ease  in  his  life.  Wealth?  One 
smiles  at  the  suggestion.  Fame?  Not  thus  do  men 
seek  fame.  The  man  secured  fame,  but  he  did  not 
know  he  was  going  to  do  it. 


MYSTERY  IN  THE  NEW  BIRTH  S7 

Tlius  we  have  a  whole  line  of  facts,  — these  radi- 
cal changes  wrought  in  character,  and  the  spirit 
of  consecration  to  hard  and  disagreeable  tasks,  of 
which  the  instance  given  is  but  one  out  of  multi- 
tudes, which  can  be  explained  on  no  other  supposi- 
tion than  that  men  are  born  anew.  Be  the  difficulties 
involved  in  the  fact  what  they  may,  and  a  proper 
philosophy  of  the  fact  never  so  hard  to  formulate, 
here  the  fact  is;  and  it  is  a  fact  altogether  too 
evident  and  robust  to  be  set  aside  by  anybody's 
denial  of  it.  Men  are  renewed  and  empowered  by 
the  grace  of  God  in  Christ. 

III.  But,  in  the  third  ^lace,  while  conceding  an 
clement  of  -profoiind  mystery  in  the  -process  of  the  new 
birth,  there  is  yet  no  valid  reason  for  not  accepting 
the  fact  of  the  new  birth,  because  the  fact  admits  of 
explanations  and  illustrations  which  would  be  deemed 
satisfactory  with  reference  to  other  subjects  of  in- 
vestigation . 

To  all  minds  not  utterly  given  over  to  atheism  it 
ought  to  be  a  sufficient  explanation  just  to  say:  God 
does  it.  This  is  what  Jesus  says:  "Born  of  the 
Spirit."  This  is  what  the  Apostle  says:  ''For  it  is 
God  that  worketh  in  3^ou."  To  this  point  we  are 
forced  at  last  with  all  our  mysteries.  This  is  the  ul- 
timate solution  of  ever^'thing,  — the  only  real  solution 
of  anything:     God  does  it. 

The  bird  sits  and  sings  because  God  has  tuned 
its  throat  to  harmony,  and  put  into  its  heart  the 
impulse  of  song.      The  bud  expands  under  the   in- 


8S  MYSTERY  IN  THE  NEW  BIRTH 

Huence  of  sunshine  and  shower,  and  unfolds  into 
all  the  richness  and  beauty  of  the  full-blown  rose, 
in  exact  accord  with  a  law  God  has  put  into  its 
germ.  The  chemist  in  his  laboratory  gets  back 
to  a  point  where  he  is  obliged  to  go  behind  "na- 
ture" and  say  —  God.  The  geologist,  after  all  his 
searchings  and  wanderings,  must  come  round  and 
sLand  with  bowed  head  and  awed  spirit  in  pres- 
ence of  the  sublime  sentence:  "In  the  beginning  — 
God.''''  To  Him  as  the  Cause  of  causes,  and  the 
Philosophy  of  philosophies,  all  things  struggle  up. 
Toward  this  conclusion  science  itself  is  now  mo\  ing. 
It  is  found  impossible  to  get  on  without  the  final  fact 
of  God. 

Hence  the  bringing  of  a  life  under  the  power  of 
the  Spirit,  and  renewing  it  in  the  divine  image,  rests 
not  merely  on  like,  but  on  the  identical  ground  on 
which,  sooner  or  later, we  are  obliged  to  place  ever}'- 
thing.  The  renewing  of  the  soul  is  a  divine  work. 
It  is  wrought  by  divine  energy,  and  after  a  divine 
manner.  As  we  live  naturally  because  He  breathes 
into  us  the  breath  of  a  natural  life,  so  we  live  spirit- 
uallj'  because  He  breathes  into  us  the  breath  of  a 
spiritual  life. 

But  Christ  did  not  pause  with  this  simple  reference 
of  the  new  birth  to  God.  On  first  view  He  seems  not 
to  have  made,  or  attempted  to  make,  any  explanation 
bej'ond  the  bare  assertion  that  whatever  change  maj- 
be  wrought  is  to  be  referred  directlj'  to  God.  Still 
He  does  go  further;  and  what  He  says  further  is 
aflame  with  light. 


MYSTERY  IN  THE  NEW  BIRTH  89 

It  is  a  curious  and  instructive  fact  that  the  word 
which  is  here  translated  "Spirit"  is  the  same  word 
which  is  translated  "wind"  or  "air."  Air,  the  most 
pervasive  and  subtle  of  the  common  elements,  is 
made  the  special  symbol  of  the  Spirit.  It  is  chosen 
as  the  vehicle  for  conveying  a  true  idea  of  the  invisi- 
ble and  mysterious  nature  of  the  Spirit.  It  looks  as 
though  Christ  meant  to  say  something  like  this: 
The  Spirit  of  God,  like  the  air  we  breathe,  is  ever- 
more about  us,  filling  all  things,  penetrating  all 
things,  sustaining  all  things,  and  is  the  element  in 
which  the  soul  lives. 

We  are  not  always  conscious  of  the  presence  of  the 
Spirit.  We  judge  of  Him  as  we  do  of  the  wind  —  by 
the  effects.  We  sit  at  our  window  on  a  calm,  still 
day,  and  look  out  upon  the  trees.  They  are  motion- 
less. There  is  no  rocking  of  leaf-crowned  tops;  no 
bending  of  stout  old  trunks.  Every  branch  seems 
asleep  on  the  bosom  of  the  atmosphere.  Suddenly 
the  leaves  begin  to  quiver,  and  faint  murmurs  steal 
in  from  the  green  recesses.  The  slumbering  boughs 
awake  from  their  repose;  the  elastic  limbs  leap  in 
ecstasy  of  life;  huge  stems  whose  strength  has  been 
compacted  from  the  centuries  bow  under  the  pressure ; 
the  neighboring  boughs  smite  each  other,  and  the 
whole  forest  sways  and  surges  before  the  majesty  of 
the  on-sweeping  wind.  For  the  winds  are  abroad. 
Whence  they  come,  or  whither  they  go,  we  know 
not ;  but  here  they  are.  We  feel  their  presence.  We 
see  their  power. 


90  MYSTERY  IN  THE  NEW  BIRTH 

This  is  the  way  it  may  be  with  the  Spirit  of  God. 
Ordinarily  the  Spirit  ma}'  not  press  Himself  on 
our  attention.  We  repose  in  Him  so  softly;  His 
solicitations  are  so  delicate,  we  are  not  conscious 
of  His  presence.  By  and  by  there  comes  a  Pente- 
costal outpouring,  a  great  awakening  which  pervades 
the  whole  land,  and  makes  an  epoch  in  religious 
history, — and  then  we  say:  "The  Spirit  is  abroad." 
We  witness  the  tokens  of  Him  everywhere.  He 
is  swaying  the  hearts  of  men  as  tempests  bend 
the  forests.  Persons  proud  with  earthly  gains  and 
prospects  He  smites  down.  He  dashes  prejudice 
in  pieces,  as  the  wind  dashes  down  decayed  trunks. 
He  uproots  what  is  old  and  ready  to  perish,  and  sifts 
in  with  a  stern  husbandry  the  seeds  of  the  new.  He 
is  a  breath  right  out  of  the  heavens  from  God;  and 
He  clarifies  and  renews  the  souls  which  recognize 
Him, and  yield  to  His  power. 

So  far,  therefore,  as  natural  things  can  be  made  to 
represent  the  things  of  the  Spirit,  the  air,  sometimes 
•at  rest, sometimes  in  motion, at  all  times  encompassing 
the  earth,  and  pervading  and  filling  every  possible 
recess,  may  be  taken  as  the  symbol  of  the  ever- 
active,  all  pervasive  and  renewing  Energy  which  we 
call  the  Holy  Ghost.  With  our  bodily  eyes  we  do 
not  see  these  movements;  but  we  feel  them,  and 
know  them  to  be  realities  by  the  power  that  is  in 
them. 

It  remains  to  suggest,  or  rather  to  entreat,  that  we 
straightway  act  in  this  great    concern   of  the  soul  as 


MYSTERY  IN  THE  NEIV  BIRTH  91 

we  do  in  all  the  lesser  matters  of  life.  We  do  not 
refuse  to  think  until  we  are  masters  of  all  the  intri- 
cate laws  of  thought.  We  do  not  refuse  to  put  forth 
volitions  until  we  understand  all  the  secrets  of  the 
will.  On  the  contrary  we  let  mind  and  will  work 
freely,  and  we  place  confidence  in  their  working. 
We  do  not  shut  ourselves  up  in  dark  rooms,  and  ex- 
clude the  light,  because  we  do  not  perfectly  compre- 
hend all  the  problems  and  laws  of  light;  we  live  in 
it  and  rejoice  in  it.  This  is  what  we  do  in  the  whole 
circle  of  our  every-day  life.  We  act  on  the  fact  of 
our  own  existence.  We  act  on  the  fact  of  our  pos- 
session of  certain  capabilities,  physical,  mental, 
moral.  We  act  on  the  fact  of  a  definite  relationship 
to  our  environment,  even  though  there  be  thousands 
upon  thousands  of  secrets  in  all  these  things  which 
we  have  never  studied  out,  and,  while  we  remain  in 
the  body  at  any  rate,  never  shall  study  out.  Why 
not  act  on  the  fact  of  God,  and  the  fact  of  the  soul, 
and  the  fact  that  through  faith  in  Christ,  and  the 
ministry  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  God  and  the  soul, 
which  is  now  separated  from  God  by  sin  and  alien- 
ation, may  be  brought  together? 

How  much  better,here  and  now,  to  cast  aside  all 
the  sophistries  and  quibblings  concerning  the  method 
of  the  birth  from  above,  and  respond  heartily  to  the 
invitations  our  Divine  Lord  lovingly  addresses  to  all 
who  are  strangers  to  the  promises,  and  without  an}' 
sure  foundation  to  the  hope  of  eternal  life, to  come 
into  the  fellowship  of  God,  and  walk  in   the  joy  of  a 


m  MYSTERY  IN  THE  NE]V  BIRTH 

new  creation  in  Christ  while  yet  on  earth,  that  when 
the  scenes  of  life  on  earth  are  over,  there  may  be  a 
walking  in  the  joy  of  a  new  creation  in  Christ 
through  the  endless  ages! 


SPIRITUAL  CAPITAL. 

For  whosoever  hatJi,  to  liini  shall  be  given,  and  he  shall 
have  abundance;  but  whosoever  hath  not,  from  him 
shall  be  taken  away  even  that  which  he  hath.  Matt. 
zj:  12. 

Following  out  the  thought  these  words  suggest, 
we  shall  be  led  to  consider  the  subject  of  Spiritual 
Capital,  This  consideration,  however,  will  be  with 
special  reference  to  the  way  in  which  such  capital 
may  be  increased  and  how  diminished    and  wasted. 

Already  an  accepted  maxim,  probably,  Jesus  took 
these  words  up  and  recast  them  and  set  to  them  the 
seal  of  His  own  name  and  made  them  current  coin 
forever. 

In  substance,  we  find  this  passage  five  times  in  the 
New  Testament;  but  the  lessons  sought  to  be  drawn 
from  it  are  only  two. 

In  connection  with  the  Parable  of  the  Sower,  these 
words  are  used  to  emphasize  the  responsibility  of  the 
soul  in  receiving  the  Word  of  God  and  nurturing  it 
into  fruitfulness.  In  connection  with  the  Parable  of 
the  Talents  they  are  brought  forward  to  impress  the 
duty  of  developing  the  faculties  and  improving  to 
the  utmost  the  opportunities  which  may  have  been 
given  to  one  by  the  Divine  Father.  The  text,  there- 
fore, is  a  sort  of  mirror,  which  reflects  the    image  of 

93 


94  SPIRITUAL  CAPITAL 

whatever  falls  upon  it.  On  the  one  hand,  it  gathers 
up  and  throws  back  in  clear,  sharp  outline,  the  issues 
which  wait  upon  fidelity.  On  the  other  hand,  it  dis- 
closes the  awful  consequences  which  must  follow 
disregard  of  duty,  whether  in  the  sphere  of  hearing 
or  doing. 

It  is  very  much  as  though  the  Great  Teacher  had 
said:  "To  receive  sincerely  every  truth  which  may 
be  communicated  —  this  is  the  only  safeguard  against 
disastrous  and  utter  loss,  not  only  of  the  truth  one 
already  has,  but  of  the  receiving  capacity;"  and: 
"To  do  promptly  every  known  duty,  and  to  discharge 
faithfully  every  trust  committed — this  is  the  only 
condition  on  which  advance  in  knowledge  and  in 
character  can  be  secured." 

To  put  it  in  still  another  wa3^  To  have  and  to 
use  well  what  one  has  is  to  make  sure  of  increase  in 
possessions.  To  have  and  to  use  ill,  or  to  use  as 
though  one  had  not  and  did  not  care  to  have,  is  to 
make  sure  of  decrease  in  possessions. 

In  illustration  of  this  it  may  be  observed  that: 

I.  The  practical  on-goings  of  our  every-day  life 
frefarc  us  to  anticipate  the  existence  and  opera- 
tion of  some  such  law  in  the  higher  realm  oj  the 
moral  and  spiritual  nature. 

Precisely  this,  indeed,  is  what  is  all  the  time  tak- 
ing place  within  the  circle  of  our  own  experience  and 
observation.  "To  him  that  hath  is  given  ;  from  him 
that  hath  not  is  taken  away,  even  that  which  he 
hath." 


SPIRITUAL  CAPITAL  95 

In  business  spheres  the  law  may  be  said  to  be  well- 
nigh, if  not  absolutely,  universal.  Naturally  enough  ; 
for  it  was  in  business  spheres  that  our  Lord  found 
this  maxim.  It  grew  out  of  financial  transactions. 
In  the  mint  of  the  exchanges  and  the  markets  it  had 
its  original  coining.  Shop-keepers,  buyers  and  sell- 
ers made  it  into  a  proverb.  Whoever  else  might 
deny  them,  men  in  commercial  life  had  to  accept 
these  words  as  they  fell  from  the  lips  of  Jesus,  be- 
cause they  embodied  a  truth  to  which  trade  itself,  in 
both  its  successes  and  failures,  had    given  currency. 

Men  saw,  for  instance,  that  if  one  was  rich  and 
cared  to  be  richer,  he  could  easily  become  so.  They 
saw  that  if  one  was  poor,  and  did  not  struggle  wisely 
and  resolutely  against  povert}^,  he  would  become 
poorer  and  poorer. 

They  see  the  same  thing  still.  The  law  works 
now  as  of  old.  Wealth  attracts  wealth.  One  house 
grows  readily  into  two  houses,  and  then  into  four  and  a 
dozen.  Sliekels  invested  with  foresight  speedily  re- 
produce other  shekels.  Large  estates,  by  a  little 
shrewd  manoeuvring,  are  made  to  swallow  up  all  the 
lesser  estates  about  them;  while  those  who  are  de- 
pendent, either  through  natural  incompetenc}',  or 
through  inability  to  embrace  opportunities  which 
chance  to  open  to  them,  or  the  steady  accumulation 
of  their  indebtedness,  v;hich  is  quite  sure  to  result  in 
the  crumbling  away  of  all  their  possessions,  become 
more  and  more  dependent  till  the  solemn  hour  when 
rich  and  poor  alike  lie  down    in   the   grave,  and   all 


96  SPIRITUAL  CAPITAL 

material  distinctions  are  blotted  out  forever.  There 
is  nothing  exceptional  in  this  fact.  Across  in  Jeru- 
salem, here  in  Chicago,  back  in  the  old  times  of  two 
thousand  years  ago  and  amidst  the  bustling  activity 
of  these  latest  times,  property  in  a  cunning  man's 
hands  is  a  magnet  sure  to  draw  other  properties  to 
itself.  A  dollar  in  possession  of  one  who  knows 
how  to  use  it  thriftily  straightway  becomes  a  net 
with  which  to  catch  other  dollars.  Pounds,  shillings 
and  pence  have  a  kind  of  gregarious  or  social  quality 
in  them  —  they  like  to  be  together.  Does  an3'body 
know  of  anything  which  seems  quite  so  lonesome  as 
the  last  dime  in  one's  pocket?  It  wants  to  get  out 
and  away  where  it  can  have  company.  There  is  a 
sort  of  mutual  attractiveness  in  these  shining  bits  of 
silver  and  gold,  and  it  is  hard  to  keep  the  few  from 
joining  the  many. 

It  is  amongst  the  cardinal  laws  of  accumulation 
that  the  way  to  get  much  is  first  to  get  little.  The 
way  to  lose  all,  and  to  block  the  paths  that  lead  to 
any  bettering  of  condition,  is  to  be  improvident  and 
careless  about  what  one  has  already.  It  is  over  the 
small  beginnings  of  a  fortune  that  the  struggle  is  al- 
ways sharpest.  To  start  is  the  difficult3\  The  first 
thousand  is  the  hard  thousand  to  win.  John  Jacob 
Astor,  in  his  old  age,  is  reported  to  have  said:  Given 
these  two  alternatives,  to  start  from  where  he  started 
with  nothing  and  work  his  way  into  possession  of  ten 
hundred  dollars,  or  to  go  on  from  the  ten  hundred 
and  amass   the   large   amount  he  gathered    together, 


SPIRITUAL  CAPITAL  97 

he  would  accept  the  latter  alternative.  Ordi- 
narily it  would  be  easier.  In  buying  and  selling, 
large,  strong  firms  are  masters  of  the  situation.  They 
can  take  advantage  of  all  the  fluctuations  in  the  mar- 
ket. They  can  trim  their  ships  so  as  to  make  every 
wind  a  favoring  gale.  It  is  said  that  at  fifty  Peabody 
was  worth  only  fifty  thousand  dollars.  But  with 
that  sum  in  hand,  coupled  with  the  skill  and  care 
which  had  enabled  him  to  climb  up  from  poverty  to 
that  round  of  the  ladder,  he  could  harvest  wealth 
almost  as  he  would.  From  that  moment  events  be- 
came his  servants,  and  wars  and  revolutions  and  na- 
tional disasters  and  embarrassments  could  be  forced 
to  pay  tribute  to  his  treasury.  Sa3Mng  nothing  now 
about  the  morality  of  their  schemes  and  methods, 
what  a  simple  matter  it  was,  after  they  once  got  go- 
ing, for  the  Vanderbilts  and  Goulds  to  make  their 
millions!  To  possess  largely  is  to  hold  the  key  with 
which  one  can  unlock  the  door  and  range  at  will 
through  all  most  promising  possibilities.  But  want 
is  a  withe  with  which  the  hands  are  tied,  so  that  one 
cannot  reach  forth  and  pluck  the  boughs,  even 
though  he  stands  in  the  midst  of  them  and  sees  that 
they  are  all  laden  with  rare  and  ripened  fruit. 

Take  it  in  the  line  of  the  successive  generations, 
and  Pharaoh's  dream  is  quite  likely  to  have  ample 
illustration.  The  sons  of  the  rich,  through  over- 
much indulgence  and  pampering,  are  liable  to  lack 
the  industry  and  economy  and  foresight  in  caring 
for  it, which  were  shown  in  the  accumulation  of  the 


98  SPIRITUAL  CAPITAL 

inheritance  that  has  descended  to  them.  But  take  it 
in  any  given  generation  where  men  stand  side  by 
side,  and  it  is  the  "fat  kine"  which  will  eat  up  "the 
lean  and  ill-favored  kine;"  and  it  is  the  "good  ears" 
which  will  "devour  the  thin  ears." 

Advantage  is  often  taken  of  this  law  to  work  great 
harm.  Huge  monopolies  are  built  up,  trusts  are 
formed.  The  strong  combine  against  the  weak  and 
crush  them.  Justice  is  overridden  and  equit}^  is  out- 
raged. Proper  remedies  must  be  invoked.  But  the 
law,  like  a  thousand  other  laws  of  which  advantage 
is  taken,  still  exists.  If  a  man  has  no  capacit}'  to 
accumulate,  or  does  not  care  to  accumulate,  or  wish- 
ing to  accumulate  is  yet  crippled  in  resources  and 
opportunities,  he  can  make  little  or  no  headway.  If 
he  possesses  already  he  can  easily  add  to  his  posses- 
sions. To  him  that  hath  shall  be  given.  From  him 
that  hath  not  shall  be  taken. 

II.  In  the  higher  sphere  of  the  mental  and  cBstheiic 
nature  there  are  facts  -prophetic  of  this  same  law 
which  Christ  atmounced  as  do7ninant  in  the  spiritual 
world. 

Indeed,  as  we  rise  in  the  scale,  the  law  becomes 
more  and  more  obvious.  Seen  in  business  realms,  it 
is  seen  still  more  clearly  in  the  realms  of  knowledge 
and  beauty.  For  in  pure  brain-quests  there  is  less 
room  for  the  play  of  accident  than  in  markets  and 
exchanges,  and  one  can  get  absolutely  nothing  which 
he  is  not  in  some  measure  fitted  to  receive. 

Here,  for  instance,  are  two  men  side  by  side.   One 


SPIRITUAL  CAPITAL  99 

of  them  can  read  and  the  other  can  not.  As  touch- 
ing the  whole  mass  of  information  which  is  in  books, 
what  a  difference  there  is  in  their  possibilities!  One 
can  make  historians  instruct  him,  and  philosophers 
guide  and  quicken  him,  and  poets  delight  him,  and 
essayists  stir  his  soul  to  a  high  enthusiasm.  The 
other,  though  he  stand  in  the  midst  of  all  libra- 
ries—  the  Bodleian  at  Oxford,  the  British  Museum 
in  London,  the  National  at  Paris,  or  the  Imperial 
at  St.  Petersburg, — can  get  nothing  out  of  them. 
These  millions  of  books  are  but  so  many  cords  of 
blotted  paper,  bound  up  in  so  many  pounds  or  square 
yards  of  sheep-skin  or  calf.  One  can  make  the  cen- 
turies bring  their  garnered  wealth  and  lay  it  down  at 
his  feet.  The  other  can  know  the  story  of  the  past 
only  as  he  picks  it  up  through  oral  traditions  or  sees 
it  in  the  institutions  and  life  before  him.  Wanting 
in  the  simple  capacity  to  read,  he  is  wanting  in  the 
capacity  which  will  enable  him  to  make  good  his 
title  to  the  rare  and  vast  treasures  which  printed  vol- 
umes contain.  A  little  knowledge  opens  the  way  to 
more  knowledge;  but  nothing  yields  nothing. 

Men  sometimes  marvel  at  the  number  of  languages 
certain  scholars  have  been  able  to  master.  Elihu 
Burritt,  the  "Learned  Blacksmith,"  for  instance,  is 
said  to  have  had  a  knowledge  of  "Latin,  Greek, 
Hebrew,  Arabic  and  other  Oriental  tongues,  and  al- 
most all  modern  European  and  Slavonic  languages." 
It  is  partly  marvelous  and  partly  not.  Of  course  it 
all  argues  special  linguistic  capacity.      Some  men  in 


loo  S PI  RITUAL  CAPITAL 

virtue  of  natural  aptitude  for  this  kind  of  learning 
can  get  along  much  faster  and  go  much  further  than 
others.  But  all  languages  have  a  certain  affinity. 
Within  certain  classes  the  relationship  is  very  close. 
Hence  when  the  student  has  acquired  one  language 
the  second  comes  easier.  Two  tongues  thoroughly 
conquered  make  the  third  one  yield  still  more  readily. 
So  on.  The  more  wide  and  varied  a  man's  knowl- 
edge of  the  languages  of  the  earth,  the  greater  will 
be  the  facility  with  which  he  will  overcome  the  diffi- 
culties of  new  speech.      To  him  that  hath. 

Surprise,  too,  is  often  expressed  at  the  amount  of 
information  which  can  be  brought  together  and  stored 
away  in  the  mind  of  a  single  individual.  The  younger 
Alexander  of  Princeton,  Lord  Macaulay,  and  Mr. 
Gladstone  might  be  cited  as  examples.  These  names 
stand  for  walking  encyclopgedias.  But  that  they 
came  to  know  so  much  is  not  wholly  surprising. 
Accumulations  like  these  imply  an  ability  far  above 
the  average,  it  is  true,  and  great  diligence  in  research 
and  remarkable  classifying  power  and  retentive 
memories.  Yet  facts,  like  languages,  have  a  son  of 
co-ordinating  thread  running  through  them.  One 
fact  thoroughly  known  opens  the  door  to  an  easy  ac- 
quaintance with  a  second,  and  these  two  to  still  a 
third,  and  so  on  indefinitely.  He  who  studies  his- 
tory wisely  is  like  a  recruiting  officer  who  makes 
each  newly  enlisted  man  an  agent  to  bring  in  others. 
The  more  the  ranks  swell  the  more  they  are  likely 
to  swell.   Let  one  become  acquainted  with  a  particu- 


SPIRITUAL  CAPITAL  lOl 

lar  era,  as  the  era  of  the  Egyptian  Pharaohs,  the 
Jewish  monarchy,  the  Grecian  philosophy,  the  Au- 
gustine age  of  Rome,  or  the  age  of  Constantine,  or 
Charlemagne,  or  Elizabeth,  or  Washington,  and  he 
can  compass  some  closely  related  second  period 
much  quicker.  Let  one  become  familiar  with  the 
career  of  some  single  nation  —  England,  say,  or 
France,  or  Spain,  or  Italy,  or  Germany,  or  Russia, 
or  the  United  States,  and  one  by  one  the  unexplored 
annals  of  the  other  nations  will  come  forward  to 
open  up  their  secrets.  For  each  touches  the  other 
at  so  many  points,  literature,  diplomacy,  invention, 
dynastic  intercourse,  wars  and  revolutions,  that  in 
learning  of  one  much  has  already  been  learned  of  the 
others.  As  the  study-point  shifts  the  seeing  will  be 
of  different  sides  of  facts;  but  the  facts  will  be  sub- 
stantially the  same. 

It  is  the  same  in  the  domain  of  the  arts  and  sciences. 
It  is  to  the  instructed  mind,  the  trained  eye  and  ear, 
that  the  heavens  and  the  earth  teem  with  communi- 
cations. One  knowing  no  astronomy  stands  out  of 
an  evening  under  the  deep  vault  of  the  overarching 
sky,  and  sees  countless  orbs  flashing  like  gems 
out  of  far-away  depths.  A  certain  impression  of 
beauty,  majesty,  power,  wisdom,  and  of  sweet  divine 
beneficence  is  made  on  him,  and  that  is  all.  To  an 
astronomer,  who  knows  all  these  burning  worlds  by 
name,  who  knows  their  orbits,  their  revolutions,  their 
dimensions,  their  influence  one  upon  another,  there 
comes  this  same   impression,   and  how  much    more! 


103  SPIRITUAL  CAPITAL 

One  knowing  nothing  of  botany  wanders  through 
the  fields  and  beholds  the  flowers,  and  they  minis- 
ter to  him  a  measure  of  pleasure.  But  how  much 
that  is  subtle  and  delicate  and  exquisite  in  their 
forms  and  modes  of  development  there  is,  which 
can  be  appreciated  only  by  a  person  who  is  up  in  the 
lore  of  flowers!  To  an  intelligent  and  enthusiastic 
botanist  the  flowers  are  gracious, confidential ;  and  they 
tell  him  secrets  they  never  so  much  as  hint  to  other 
people.  Professor  Dana  climbs  the  mountains  and 
roams  through  the  valleys;  he  rides  in  and  out  of  the 
deep  cuts  along  the  railroad  lines;  his  quick  eye  sees 
the  likenesses  and  unlikenesses  in  composition  of 
soils  and  rocks,  and  everything,  everywhere  he 
goes,  has  a  wonderful  story  to  tell  him.  The  rocks 
are  more  than  rocks  as  he  looks  upon  them;  they 
are  open  volumes  wherein  there  are  thoughts  written 
by  the  finger  of  God.  Layers  upon  layers  in  the 
structure  of  the  globe  are  well-preserved  annals  of 
the  long-gone  ages.  These  facts  are  not  disclosed 
to  everybody.  For  nature  is  fastidious.  She  will 
jneld  her  secrets  to  trained  minds,  but  not  to  those 
ignorant  of  their  significance. 

We,  all  of  us,  catch  this  trick  of  nature,  and  act 
in  the  same  way.  Let  a  man  become  distinguished 
as  an  antiquarian,  and  how  all  the  world  will  rush 
to  him  with  relics!  Let  it  be  known  that  a  lawyer 
is  crowded  with  cases,  or  "that  a  physician  is  overrun 
with  patients,  and  what  a  multitude  will  flock  to  him 
for  counsel  or  treatment!    Pack  a  church  and  every- 


SPIRITUAL  CAPITAL  103 

body  will  want  to  get  into  it.  When  scholars  pass 
from  country  to  country  it  is  scholars  they  go  to  see. 
Eminence  in  art,or  science,  or  literature,  attracts  to 
itself  corresponding  eminence.  It  was  to  Gough, 
who  already  had  so  many  he  did  not  know  what  to  do 
with  them,  that  men  told  their  charming  stories,  or 
their  harrowing  tales  of  domestic  life  and  of  the 
ruin  and  rescue  of  homes.  Having  much  of  this  kind 
of  information,  men  hurried  to  him  with  more.  It 
was  to  Garrison  and  Smith  and  Beecher  and  Love- 
joy  and  Jocelyn  and  Mrs.  Stowe  that  men  used  to  run 
with  accounts  of  slaves, — their  trials,  their  escapes, 
their  plans  and  feelings  and  hopes,  and  so  added  to 
stores  of  knowledge  which  were  already  large.  It 
was  to  Audubon,  whose  acquaintance  with  birds  was 
so  intimate  and  ample,  and  not  to  those  who  knew 
nothing  about  birds,  that  everybody  rushed  with 
fresh  discoveries  of  the  haunts  and  habits  of  birds. 
It  was  to  Agassiz,  whose  cabinet  was  stored  wnth 
wonders,  that  every  strange  specimen  of  fish  and 
shell  and  reptile  was  straightway  expressed.  When 
Professor  Felton  was  alive,  and  stood  at  the  head  of 
Greek  scholars  in  America,  and  later  when  Professor 
Hadley  succeeded  to  this  place,  all  other  Greek 
scholars  were  ready  to  lay  their  treasures  of  research 
at  his  feet.  It  is  to  those  who  have  abundant  sup- 
plies of  books  that  books  are  most  likely  to  be  given 
by  authors  and  publishers. 

Evidently  —  so  evidently   that  nobody  can  fail   to 
see  it  —  it  is  not  need  which  regulates  in  these  matters. 


104  SPIRITUAL  CAPITAL 

The  needs  are  all  the  other  way.  It  is  those  who 
are  supplied  to  fullness  who  are  supplied  still  more. 
It  is  those  who  lack  who  are  left  lacking  still.  Men 
carry  their  contributions  of  fact  as  they  do  their  sacks 
of  grain,  to  the  mills  where  they  feel  sure  they  can 
be  ground.  A  garment  cannot  be  hung  up  if  there 
is  no  pin  to  hang  it  on.  There  can  be  no  giving 
where  there  is  no  capacity  to  receive.  Music,  poetry, 
fine  sentiment,  and  all  the  finer  expressions  of  the 
soul,  are  thrown  away  upon  one  who  is  without  an 
open  eye  and  an  open  ear  and  an  aptitude  to  take  in 
these  forms  of  thought  and  feeling.  All  through  the 
realm  of  mind,  and  all  through  the  realm  of  taste,  it 
is  and  it  must  be  to  him  that  hath. 

III.  Advancing  now  to  the  -position  to  which  all 
these  Jacts  have  been  -pointing,  it  may  be  said  that  in 
spirittial  spheres  the  law  antiounced  by  our  Lord  is 
absolute. 

In  force  in  a  general  way  in  the  accumulation  of 
property,  and  in  force  still  more  rigidly  in  matters 
of  knowledge  and  taste,  in  the  range  of  those  higher 
faculties  with  which  God  is  apprehended  and  ap- 
proaches to  God  are  made,  and  which  come  into 
play  in  the  living  of  a  godly  life  on  earth,  there  may 
be  said  to  be  no  exception  to  the  law. 

This  will  appear  from  a  few  specifications. 

I.  //  is  to  souls  which  have  in  them  some  measure 
of  faith,  and  use  it,  that  larger  measures  of  faith  are 
given. 

It  is  not  merely  true  that    faith  is    rewarded,  and 


SPIRITUAL  CAPITAL  105 

that  disclosures  richer  and  more  abundant  are  made 
to  faith  as  it  is  exercised,  but  the  faith  itself  grows 
and  becomes  stronger  and  stronger  as  it  is  put  under 
the  strain  of  a  wise  and  healthy  activity.  The  man 
who  believes  in  God,  and  moves  forward  under  in- 
spiration of  this  belief,  comes  in  no  long  time  to  be- 
lieve in  God  more  easily  and  fully,  and  to  put  a  more 
unquestioning  trust  in  all  His  promises  and  provi- 
dences. 

This  is  brought  out  in  the  story  of  Abraham.  He 
appeared  on  the  stage  as  a  man  of  faith.  God  spoke 
to  him.  He  believed.  Because  he  believed  he 
obeyed.  He  put  what  faith  he  had  into  practice, 
and  made  it  his  working  capital.  But  is  it  not  clear 
that  his  faith  grew  through  use,  and  was  equal  to 
harder  tasks  at  the  end  of  his  career  than  at  the  be- 
ginning? When  word  came  to  him  there  in  Meso- 
potamia, before,  as  Stephen  tells  us,  he  dwelt  in 
Haran,  directing  him  to  leave  native  land  and  kin- 
dred and  enter  a  land  which  was  to  be  shown  him, 
but  of  which  as  yet  he  knew  nothing,  he  was  sub- 
jected to  a  severe  test,  and  it  is  to  his  everlasting 
glory  that  he  was  equal  to  it;  but  there  was  nothing 
in  this  to  go  to  the  heart-strings,  and  stagger  the 
soul  by  working  confusion  in  past  dealings  and  future 
prospects,  as  under  the  order,  through  which  "God 
did  prove  Abraham,"  to  take  his  son,  his  one  son, 
whom  he  loved,  even  Isaac,  and  journey  away  with 
him  to  the  land  of  Moriah.  He  exercised  faith  in 
God,  and  by  exercise  developed  his  faith,  until  it 
was  equal  to  this  tremendous  strain. 


106  SPmirCAL  CAPITAL 

God  can  be  a  living  Presence  to  the  soul  only  when 
the  soul  has  an  eye  to  see  God.  Atheism  has  no  eye 
with  which  to  see,  and  no  ear  with  which  to  hear, 
consequently  it  sees  nothing  and  hears  nothing. 
Just  this  is  all  the  significance  there  is  in  the  testi- 
mony of  atheists.  For  when  men  proclaim  their 
atheism  and  their  infidelity  with  such  vehemency  as 
characterizes  many  of  the  harangues  and  essays  now 
so  popular  in  certain  quarters,  it  will  be  found  after 
all  that  they  are  not  so  much  talking  about  divine 
things  as  exhibiting  their  own  spiritual  poverty.  They 
think  they  are  saying,  and  it  may  be  demonstrating, 
that  there  is  no  God, and  no  Son  of  God,  and  no  im- 
mortality, and  no  conscious  life  and  blessedness 
awaiting  human  beings  in  the  great  realms  beyond; 
but  what  they  are  really  making  clear  is  that  their 
own  spiritual  natures  are  shriveled  and  atrophied. 
This  was  the  pathetic  confession  of  Darwin  —  that 
spiritual  apprehensions  and  sensibilities  had  died  out 
of  him.  His  mind  had  become  obscured  to  the  fact 
and  nearness  of  God. 

A  man  must  start  with  such  faith  as  he  has.  If 
the  faith  is  weak  it  is  not  to  be  despised;  it  is  to  be 
cherished  and  cultivated.  J3ut  the  simpler  and  more 
unquestioning  the  faith,  the  richer  and  ampler  will 
be  the  responses.  A  little  faith  rightly  used  will  grow 
to  more  faith,  and  the  more  to  more  still,  till  the 
answers  to  it  are  like  the  floodings  of  light  in  a  June 
morning.  No  man  knows  to  what  heavenl}'  splen- 
dors his  eyes  may  be  opened  if  he  will  only  cultivate 


Sri RITUAL    CAPITAL  107 

and  cherish  faith.  No  man  knows  how  he  may  be 
filled  with  God  if  he  will  only  believe  with  a  steadily 
increasing  energy. 

The  childlike  faith,  that  asks  not  sight, 

Waits  not  for  wonder  or  for  sign, 
Believes,  because  it  loves  aright. 

Shall  see  things  greater,  things  divine. 
Heaven  to  that  gaze  shall  open  wide. 

And  brightest  angels  to  and  fro 
On  messages  of  love  shall  glide, 

'Twixt  God  above  and  heart  below. 

2.  //  is  men  and  women  who  value  and  use  the 
knowledge  they  already  have  of  God  and  sfiritnal 
realities  who  will  be  sure  to  jnake  constant  progress 
in  this  knozuledge. 

There  is  a  spiritual  power  which  it  is  possible  for 
devout  souls  to  master.  But  it  takes  time  and  un- 
remitting effort  to  rise  into  these  high  masteries  of 
things  divine.  It  cannot  be  done  in  a  moment,  nor 
at  a  single  leap. 

God  sometimes  seems  to  break  in  on  men,  as  on 
Paul,  and  suddenly  arrest  them  in  their  mad  careers, 
and  show  them  the  truth  in  such  fullness  as  well-nigh 
to  blind  the  soul  with  excess  of  light.  This  was  done 
on  the  Day  of  Pentecost.  Multitudes  felt  the  sharp 
pressure  of  what  seemed  to  them  the  divine  finger 
on  their  consciences,  and  they  turned  about  and 
came  instantly  into  those  sacred  and  lofty  experi- 
ences which  made  it  ever  after  easier  to  believe. 
But  these  are  only  apparent  exceptions.  The  men 
who  were  so  wrought  upon  on  the  Day  of  Pentecost 
were  largely  "devout  men."  They  had  in  them  the 
beginnings  of  knowledge. 


108  SPIRITCAL  CAPITAL 

Wider  and  surer  knowledge,  however,  must  come 
from  the  use  of  such  knowledge  as  we  have.  Using 
such  knowledge  as  we  have  will  surely  bring  the 
wider  and  surer  knowledge.  What  advances  Peter 
and  James  and  John  made  in  spiritual  apprehension! 
How  much  further  along  in  right  conceptions  of 
God's  thoughts  and  ways  was  the  beloved  Disciple 
on  the  Isle  of  Patmos  than  when,  along  with  his  as- 
sociates, he  wanted  tire  brought  down  on  the  village 
of  the  Samaritans! 

In  these  times,  when  the  air  is  full  of  misgivings 
and  doubts,  how  refreshing  it  is  to  read  the  Great 
Apostle's  repeated  assertion,  "We  know."  Paul 
"knew"  that  if  the  earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle 
were  dissolved,  there  is  yet  another  house  for  us 
yonder  in  the  heavens.  He  "knew"  that  all  things, 
under  the  providence  of  Him  who  notes  the  fall  of  a 
sparrow  and  numbers  the  hairs  of  our  heads,  work 
together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God.  He  "knew" 
whom  he  believed.  Indeed,  he  came  to  "know" 
things  quite  beyond  the  power  of  even  his  marvelous 
gift  of  speech  to  utter. 

This  wide  reach  of  attainments  and  this  altitude  of 
positive  assurance  do  not  come  b}^  chance.  The}' 
come  by  adding  fact  to  fact.  The}'  come  by  press- 
ing on  from  experience  to  experience.  They  come 
through  a  patient  searching  of  the  Word.  They 
come  through  the  communion  of  the  closet.  They 
come  from  having  an  ear  attenttoeach  fresh  whisper 
of  the  Spirit.     They  come  from   making  every  new 


SPIRITUAL  CAPITAL  109 

truth  learned  of  God  a  round  of  the  ladder  on  which 
to  mount  to  still  higher  truths. 

It  is  often  amazing  and  always  painful  to  see  how 
little  large  numbers  of  men  really  get  on  in  this  deep 
and  precious  knowledge  of  God.  They  remind  one 
of  tourists  who  sometimes  travel  in  foreign  countries, 
amidst  palaces,  amidst  towns  and  cities  resplendent, 
amidst  magnificent  mountains  and  lakes,  along  rivers 
the  most  beautiful,  and  over  grounds  of  intense  his- 
torical interest,  but  who  bring  back  only  stories  of 
petty  personal  annoyance  in  their  comings  and  goings. 
Men  walk  back  and  forth  amidst  the  multitudinous 
tokens  of  God,  and  right  into  the  face  of  the  splen- 
dors with  which  He  illuminates  the  world,  and  yet 
they  fail  to  recognize  His  presence  and  influence. 
His  voice  falls  on  their  ears,  and  His  hand  beckons, 
and  His  Spirit  is  ready  to  co-work  with  all  the  fac- 
ulties of  the  soul,  and  His  providence  is  full  of  sug- 
gestion and  ministry;  but  for  all  this  they  never 
get  beyond  the  rudiments  of  Christian  thinking 
and  living.  They  never  have  anything  to  tell  of 
rare  and  uplifting  visions  of  God  and  of  excursions 
into  higher  realms  of  light  and  joy.  They  never 
move  forward  into  deeper  convictions  and  larger 
views  of  Jesus  Christ. 

It  is  present  knowledge  cherished  and  nursed  and 
cultivated  ;  it  is  present  knowledge  increased  by  every 
possible  method  of  enlargement,  which  will  advance 
one  till  doubt  after  doubt  is  dissolved,  and  a  thou- 
sand supposed  mysteries  are  laid  open,  and  the  lofty 


110  SPIRITUAL  CAPITAL 

disclosures  of  prophets  and  apostles  and  rapt  seers 
are  no  longer  either  unintelligible  or  incredible.  One 
comes  to  know  even  that   which   passes   knowledge. 

3.     Love  also  grozvs  through  the  exercise  oj"  love. 

TJie  more  we  love  God  and  the  things  which  are 
dear  to  the  heart  of  God,  the  larger  becomes  our  ca- 
pacit}^  for  loving  and  the  greater  our  satisfaction  in 
loving.  It  is  to  loving  souls  that  the  divine  love 
answers  back  in  swelling  tides  of  love.  We  love 
Him  because  He  first  loved  us.  He  awakens  love 
in  our  hearts,  and  sets  the  pulses  of  love  in  motion. 
He  draws  us  out  b}"^  expressions  of  love.  But  it  is 
love  in  us  which  interprets  love  in  Him;  and  the 
more  we  love  the  more  we  may  love,  and  the  better 
we  may  understand  God,  Madame  Guyon  is  right 
when  she  says  God  can 

.     .     .     not   be  dear 
When  self  engrosses  all  the  thought; 

And  groans  and  murmurs  make  it  clear 
What  else  is  loved  the  Lord  is  not. 

At  first  the  love  may  be  very  feeble;  but  if  it  be 
fostered,  and  currents  for  its  free  flowing  be  opened, 
it  will  become  the  controlling  passion  of  the  life. 

This  applies  alike  to  the  filial  love  of  God  and  the 
benevolent  love  of  men.  The  world's  way  is  hate 
for  hate  and  blow  for  blow.  But  when  a  man  begins 
in  sincerity  and  good  earnest  to  love,  and  follows  on 
where  the  spirit  of  love  leads,  he  soon  comes  under 
the  sweet  dominion  of  a  love  which  is  large  enough 
to    embrace  his  enemies.      What  a  measureless  love 


SPIRITUAL  CAPITAL  111 

was  that  which  enabled  the  Divine  Redeemer  to  ex- 
claim on  the  cross:  "Father,  forgive  them;  for  they 
know  not  what  they  do."  But  this  love  was  echoed 
by  the  first  martyr  to  the  faith  when  he  prayed: 
"Lord,  lay  not  this  sin  to  their  charge."  The  foun- 
tains of  love  may  be  dried  up  in  the  soul  by  inaction 
and  selfishness;  or  by  a  wise  care  in  keeping  them 
open  they  may  be  made  to  flow  out  in  a  steadily  in- 
creasing volume.  It  is  because  they  cultivated  their 
love  for  God  and  man,  and  kept  it  in  wholesome  ac- 
tivity, that  the  pages  of  history  are  brightened  with 
such  names  as  Paul  and  Augustine  and  Eliot  and 
Wilberforce  and  Howard  and  Mar}'  Lyon  and  Emily 
Judson  and  Florence  Nightingale  and  David  Living- 
stone and  John  G.  Paton  of  the  New  Hebrides. 

In  this  way  we  might  follow  on  around  the  entire 
circle  of  our  spiritual  capacities,  and  the  result  would 
be  the  same.  It  is  the  seeing  eye  to  which  things  are 
revealed.  It  is  the  hearing  ear  to  which  things  are 
spoken.  The  way  to  see  more  clearly,  the  way  to 
hear  more  distinctly,  is  to  be  obedient  to  every  voice 
and  to  every  vision.  The  buried  talent  is  withdrawn. 
The  unused  faculty  withers.  To  him  that  hath  shall 
be  given;  but  from  him  that  hath  not  shall  be  taken 
away.  Only  by  the  use,  wise  and  persistent,  of  those 
faculties  by  which  we  know  God,  and  serve  God, 
and  walk  in  the  fellowship  of  God,  shall  we  ever  be 
able  to  realize  the  sublime  aspirations  of  the  Apostle 
when  he  said:  "I  count  not  myself  yet  to  have  ap- 
prehended; but  one  thing  I  do,  forgetting  the  things 


113  SriKirUAL  CAPITAL 

which  are  behind^  and  stretching  forward  to  the 
things  which  are  before,  I  press  on  toward  the  goal 
unto  the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus." 

There  went  a  man  from  home;  and  to  his  neighbors  twain 

He  gave  to  keep  for  him,   t%vo  sacks    of  golden  grain. 

Deep  in  his  cellar  one  the  precious  charge  concealed; 

And  forth  the  other  went  and  strewed  it  in  his  field. 

The  man  returns  at  last  —  asks  of  the  first  his  sack; 

'Here,  take  it;  'tis  the  same;  thoti  hast  it  safely  back.' 

Unharmed  it  shows  ivithout;  but  luhen  he  zvould  explore 

His  sack's  recesses,  corn  there  finds  he  now  Jio  more; 

One  half  of  what  was  there  proves  rotten  and  decayed, 

Upon  the  other  half  have  worm  and  mildew  preyed. 

The  putrid  heap  to  him  in  ire  he  doth  rettirn. 

Then  of  the  other  asks  :      '  IVhere  is  my  sack  of  corn?' 

Who  answered:    '  Come  with  me  and  see  how  it  has  sped, ' 

And  took  and  showed  him  fields  with  waving  harvest  spread.' 

Trench. 


OUR    INSUFFICIENCY  MADE  SUFFICIENT 
IN  GOD. 

Who  is  sufficient  for  these  things?     2  Cor.  2:16. 
Ottr  snfficiency    is  from  God.     2  Cor .  j:  ^. 

These  two  passages,  brought  together  in  this  way, 
disclose  to  us,  even  before  it  can  be  announced,  the 
theme  of  the  morning,  which  is:  Our  Insufficiency 
Made  Sufficient  in  God. 

Paul  was  speaking  of  his  ministry.  The  imagery 
chosen,  according  to  Professor  Plumptre  in  Ellicott's 
Commentary,  through  which  to  express  his  thought 
was  "that  of  the  solemn  triumphal  procession  of  a  Ro- 
man emperor  or  general."  He  conceived  of  himself 
as  one  who  had  been  conquered  by  the  grace  of  God 
in  Christ  and  was  being  led  along,  a  willing  captive, 
in  the  ranks  of  those  who  were  attached  to  the  chariot 
of  the  Divine  Victor.  "But  thanks  be  unto  God, 
which  always  leadeth  us  in  triumph  in  Christ." 

This, however,  was  not  the  whole  of  it.  He  added: 
"And  maketh  manifest  through  us  the  savour  of  His 
knowledge  in  every  place."  Evidently,  to  follow 
still  the  guidance  of  the  scholar  already  named,  this 
was  said  with  reference  to  the  incense  which  was  an 
essential  part  of  each  Roman  triumph.  The  words 
he  spoke   in    testimony  of  the    redeeming    love  and 

113 


114     OUR  INSUFFICIENCY  MADE  SUFFICIENT  IN  GOD 

power  of  Jesus  were  "incense-clouds,"  so  he  seemed 
to  fashion  the  matter  to  his  own  mind,  which  bore 
to  all  around,  as  they  were  wafted  in  the  air,  tidings 
that  the  Conqueror  had  come,  laden  with  tokens  of 
His  subduing  might. 

But  the  use  of  this  analogy  suggested  a  more  se- 
rious aspect  of  the  case.  For  some  who  appeared 
in  those  Roman  triumphs  were  on  their  way  to  a 
glad  deliverance,  while  some  were  on  their  way  to 
disgrace  and  death.  All  to  whom  the  knowledge  of 
Christ  came  through  the  preaching  of  the  Apostle, 
were  to  be  sharers  in  the  incense  of  the  knowledge; 
but  not  all,  like  himself  and  whoever  else  might  be- 
lieve, were  to  be  victorious  captives.  "For  we  are  a 
sweet  savour  of  Christ  unto  God, in  them  that  are  being 
saved,  and  in  them  that  are  perishing;  to  the  one  a 
savour  from  death  unto  death  ;  to  the  other  a  savour  of 
life  unto  life."  Or  as  our  expositor  has  said:  "To  some" 
his  holding  forth  of  salvation  through  a  crucified  Re- 
deemer "would  seem  to  be  as  a  breath  from  paradise, 
giving  life  and  health;  to  another  its  sweetness 
would  seem  sickly  and  pestilential,  coming  as  from 
a  charnel  house,  having  in  it  the  savour  of  death  and 
leading  to  death  as  its  issue." 

Well  might  the  Apostle  follow  up  these  statements 
with  the  question:  "Who  is  sufficient  for  these 
things?"  Well  might  any  one  whose  business  it  is 
to  handle  the  truth  of  God,  whether  as  a  preacher 
or  teacher  or  most  inconspicuous  worker,  put  the 
question.      For  the  outcome  of  efforts  in   the    sphere 


OUR  INSUFFICIENCY  MADE  SUFFICIENT  IN  GOD     115 

of  winning  souls  into  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God,  is 
simply  beyond  the  power  of  estimate  in  human 
speech.  It  is  touching,  it  is  more  than  touching  —  it 
is  to  tlie  last  degree  instructive  to  see  this  man  with 
his  massive  intellect,  with  his  trained  faculties,  with 
his  stores  of  knowledge  and  with  his  experience  and 
courage,  falling  back  into  such  a  profound  sense  of 
his  own  insufficiency. 

But  Paul  quickly  came  upon  an  answer  to  his 
question.  It  was  not  in  himself,  nor  in  his  associ- 
ates, nor  in  an}'  scheme  of  stoicism  or  desperation, 
that  he  could  tind  the  required  sufficiency.  It  was  in 
God.  In  God  he  could  go  bravely  and  successfully 
on.  "Who  is  sufficient  for  these  things?"  "Not  of 
ourselves;  our  sufficiency  is  from  God." 

This  trutli,  so  exactly  suited  to  the  needs  of  Paul, 
and  to  all  who  have  come  after  him  in  the  ministry  of 
the  Word,  has  a  yet  wider  application  than  to  preach- 
ers and  to  the  work  in  which  preachers  are  engaged. 
There  is  no  one  who  stands  face  to  face  with  any 
serious  task  in  life,  in  whom  it  would  not  be  becom- 
ing and  profitable  to  turn  the  eye  inward  and  take 
the  measure  of  his  qualifications  for  what  he  is  to  do. 
There  is  no  one  who  stands  face  to  face  with  any 
serious  task  in  life, who  might  not  fitly  harbor  distrust 
of  his  ability  to  discharge  in  the  wisest  and  best  way 
the  duties  committed  to  his  hands,  and  in  terms  of 
deepest  sincerity  and  earnestness  cry  out  for  a  higher 
sufficiency. 

With  what  eminent  propriety  might  every  mother, 


116     OUR  INSUFFICIENCY  MADE  SUFFICIENT  IN  GOD 

on  takinof  a  new-born  babe  into  her  arms,  exclaim  in 
accents  of  unfeigned  solicitude:  "Who  is  sufiicient 
for  the  lofty  service  of  training  this  immortal  soul 
so  that  whatever  of  evil  .tendency  there  is  in  it  b}' 
nature  shall  be  corrected  or  suppressed,  and  what- 
ever of  good,  actual  or  possible,  shall  be  developed, 
and  there  shall  be  no  missing  of  the  sublime  destiny 
open  to  it  through  the  wisdom  and  love  of  God?" 

With  what  striking  suitableness,  too,  might  fathers 
join  in  with  mothers  and  ask:  "How  is  this  group 
of  children  who  are  gradually  gathering  about  our 
hearth-stone  and  our  table,  and  who  will  so  quickly 
push  on  through  youth  to  mature  years,  to  be  kept 
sweet  and  loving  and  lovable,  and  so  educated  in  the 
faith  of  Jesus,  and  all  the  principles  and  aims  and 
excellencies  for  which  the  name  of  Jesus  stands,  that 
the}'  may  be  not  alone  our  children,  but  in  their 
hearts  God's  children,  ready  to  walk  in  His  light, 
and  glad  always  to  do  His  divine  will?" 

The  teacher  in  our  public  schools  and  in  our  vari- 
ous institutions  of  learning,  meeting  pupils  day  by 
da}'  in  any  worthy  consciousness  of  the  influence 
necessarily  exerted  by  one  who  performs  the  sacred 
function  of  instructor,  and  of  the  tenacious  way  in 
which  this  influence  will  abide  in  all  the  years  to 
come ;  the  physician  who  goes  about  amongst  his 
patients  at  all  hours,  burdened  as  he  often  must  be 
with  the  feeling  that  the  issues  of  life  and  death 
hang  on  his  insight  and  skill  and  fidelity;  the  editor 
who  pens  words  sure  to  be  factors  in  shaping  individual 


OUR  LVSLTFIC/EA'CY  MADE  SUFFICIENT  IN  GOD    lit 

sentiment  and  molding  public  opinion,  and  so  to  be 
marked  helps  or  hindrances  to  the  progress  and  happi- 
ness of  societ}^,  migliteach  be  pardoned  not  only,  but 
commended  in  warmest  phrase,  for  pausing  now  and 
then  and  solemnly  asking:  "Who  is  suflicient  for 
these  things?" 

There  would  be  more  ground  for  hope  that  the 
men  who  aspire  to  places  of  trust  and  honor  in  the 
pviblic  service  —  who  want  to  be  aldermen  and  mayors 
and  governors  and  representatives  and  senators  and 
judgesand  cabinet  officers  and  presidents,and  whosuc- 
ceed  in  reaching  these  responsible  jjositions — would 
discharge  their  duties  a  great  deal  better,  whether 
of  translating  the  deliberate  thought  of  the  masses  of 
the  people  into  law,  or  of  interpreting  the  law  in 
courts  of  justice,  or  of  executing  law  in  the  interest 
of  the  common  welfare,  if  they  only  had  a  somewhat 
profounder  sense,  or  in  many  instances  any  sense  at 
all,  of  their  own  insufficiency  for  meeting  demands 
so  grave.  For  these  civil  duties,  viewed  either  from 
the  standpoint  of  an  intelligent  obligation  to  God  or 
humanity,. are  high  and  exacting.  It  is  refreshing  to 
go  back  and  see  how  this  sense  of  self-insufficiency 
pervaded  the  minds  of  some  of  the  great  founders 
of  our  Republic. 

Now  the  value  of  this  sense  of  insufficiency,  as 
Paul  felt  it,  and  as  it  ought  to  be  felt  by  all,  in  all 
spheres  of  life,  who  are  charged  with  any  kind  of 
grave  responsibility,  is  that  it  drives  men  back  to  the 
true  source  of  sufficiency.      It  drives   them    back   to 


118     OCR  hVSUFFICIENCY  MADE  SUFFICIENT  IN  GOD 

Him  in  whom  alone  are  to  be  found  the  love  and  wis- 
dom and  patience  and  strength  actually  needed  for 
the  work  laid  upon  them. 

It  is  not  that  men  are  not  to  be  self-reliant  as 
against  the  peculiar  feeling  of  dependence  which 
cuts  all  the  nerves  of  resolution.  It  is  not  that  men 
are  not  to  move  forward  in  a  spirit  of  determined 
aggressiveness  as  against  standing  still  and  merelj' 
marking  time.  It  is  not  that  men  are  not  to  be  cour- 
ageous,  and  read}^  to  assume  fitting  attitudes  on  all 
questions  of  moment  as  against  the  timidity  and 
cowardice  which  never  venture  on  any  risks,  or  the 
undertaking  of  any  enterprise  which  calls  for  the  ex- 
ercise of  a  strong  faith.  But  it  is  that  men,  on  the 
one  hand,  shall  have  such  a  conviction  of  the  sacred- 
ness  and  far-reaching  influence  of  the  work  which 
has  been  committed  to  them  to  do,  and  such  a  whole- 
some distrust,  on  the  other  hand,  of  their  own  capa- 
bilities and  preparation,  that  they  will  be  constrained 
to  fall  on  their  knees  and  implore  God  to  grant  the 
divine  inner  girding  and  divine  guidance  required 
to  fill  up  the  measure  of  abilit}'. 

There  is  nothing  so  harmful,  unless  one  crosses 
the  border-line  and  launches  out  into  a  career  of 
open  immorality  and  vice,  as  self-conceit.  Let  one 
start  out  with  the  idea  that  he  knows  it  all,  and  can 
do  it  all,  without  much  aid  from  men,  and  with 
none  at  all  from  God,  in  virtue  of  his  own  superior 
wit  or  insight,  and  he  will  be  more  than  likel}'  to 
come  to  grief.    What  sorry  collapses  there  Iiave  been 


OUR  IXSUFl'lCIENCY  MADE  SCEJICIEKT  IN  GOD     111) 

in  the  home  world,  and  in  the  literary  world,  and  in 
the  political  and  reform  world,  and  in  the  religious 
world,  because  men  thought  they  were  sufficient  in 
themselves,  and  could  get  on  without  God!  How 
insignificant  and  painful  —  not  to  say  ridiculous  —  in 
instances  not  a  few,  has  been  the  outcome  of  efforts 
which  were  begun  with  flaming  manifestoes  and 
blare  of  trumpets  and  the  ostentatious  announcement 
that  short  work  was  to  be  made  of  revolutionizing 
the  world  and  turning  all  mankind  over  to  peace  and 
plenty  and  virtue! 

No  matter  what  wealth  of  knowledge  a  man  may 
have,  nor  what  resources,  nor  what  numbers  he  can 
rally  to  his  support,  it  is  never  wise  to  leave  God  out 
of  the  reckoning.  In  no  home,  in  no  school,  in  no 
senate-chamber,  in  no  reform  circle,  in  no  church, 
is  there  enough  of  wisdom  and  strength  to  meet  all 
the  responsibilities  and  discharge  all  the  duties  in  a 
way  to  secure  the  "well-done"  of  the  Master  at  last, 
without  supplement  from  God.  Apart  from  God, 
nothing  aright.      In  God,  all  things. 

One  of  the  reasons,  no  doubt,  why  there  is  so  little 
sense  of  our  insufficienc}^  or  need  of  the  light  and 
help  of  God,  is  that  life,  to  our  ordinary  average 
thought,  is  not  invested  with  the  sanctit}'  which  be- 
longs to  it.  We  cut  up  life,  as  we  do  time,  into 
sections,  and  then  saj'  this  little  bit  of  a  section  is 
sacred,  but  the  rest  may  go  to  such  uses  as  we  choose 
without  any  feeling  of  accountability.  Life  in  the 
length  and  breadth  of  it,  life   in    all   the    belongings 


120     OUR  INSUFFICIENCY  MADE  SUFFICIENT  IN  GOD 

and  outgoings  of  it,  life  in  its  totality,  is  not  set  over 
into  the  sunlight  of  the  divine  estimate, and  measured 
back  from  the  gateway  of  eternity.  The  inspired 
view  of  life  involves  creation  in  the  image  of  God, 
an  immortal  destiny,  and  the  possibility  of  unlimited 
development  in  knowledge  and  virtue.  The  inspired 
view  of  life  involves  the  doing  of  everything  as  un- 
der the  great  Taskmaster's  eye.  "Whether,  there- 
fore, ye  eat,  or  drink,  or  whatever  ye  do,  do  all  to 
the  glory  of  God."  No  man's  conception  of  life  is 
properly  elevated  until,  in  the  whole  sweep  of  it,  it  is 
brought  up  and  put  under  the  rule  of  the  "glory  of 
God,"  or,  what  comes  to  the  same  thing  in  effect, 
the    rule    of  "the  love  of  God." 

Keble  has  a  hymn  in  which  he  intimates  that  the 
"trivial  round"  and  the  "common  task"  of  life  will 
furnish  all  one  may  reasonably  desire  in  the  way  of 
opportunity  for  self-denial  and  advancing  in  nearness 
to  the  Father.This  never  seemed  to  me  to  be  quite  true. 
But  it  is  true  that  the  "trivial  round"  and  the  "com- 
mon task"  may  be  illuminated,  and  ought  to  be,  with 
the  thought  that  God  can  be  served  in  them,  and 
that  these  small  activities  can  be  made  a  means  of 
grace  to  the  soul.  Such  a  thought  sanctifies  the 
"round"  and  the  "task,"  and  thej^  are  no  longer 
"trivial"  and  "common."  For  as  our  author  sings 
in  the  same  hymn : 

If  in  our  daily  course  our  mind 

Be  set,  to  hallow  all  we  find. 

New  treasures  still,  of  countless  price, 

God  will  provide  for  sacrifice. 


OUR  INSUFFICIENCY  MADE  SUFFICIENT  IN  GOD     121 

Old  friends,  old  scenes,  will  lovelier  be, 
As  more  of  heaven  in  each  we  see; 
Some  softening  gleam  of  love  and  prayer 
Shall  dawn  on  every  cross  and  care. 

It  matters  not  that  multitudes  use  life  as  thoucfh  it 
were  simply  a  prolonged  banquet,  and  that  eating 
and  drinking  and  wild  dissipation  sum  up  its  mean- 
ing; nor  that  other  multitudes  use  it  as  though  it 
were  something  to  be  bartered  away  in  exchange  for 
houses  and  lands  and  heaps  of  gold;  nor  that  still 
other  multitudes  use  it  till  it  is  worn  out  in  chafing 
and  fretting  againct  its  mysteries  and  limitations.  Life 
is  yet  something  superlatively  regal.  It  is  a  beam 
whose  sun  is  the  great  central  orb  of  the  moral  uni- 
verse. It  is  a  stream  whose  fountain  is  the  source 
of  all  intelligence  and  ]q>^u  It  is  a  song,  if  only  we 
will  let  it  sing  itself  out,  whose  key-note  was  struck 
by  Him  who  attuned  the  melody  of  the  morning 
stars.  What  it  may  become,  how  rare,  how  exalted, 
is  shown  in  the  Divine  Man. 

Another  of  the  reasons,  no  doubt,  why  there  is  lit- 
tle sense  of  our  insufficiency,  or  need  of  the  light 
and  help  of  God,  is  that  we  do  not  set  our  hands  to 
tasks  which  tax  energy,  intellectual,  moral,  spiritual 
and  sympathetic  alike,  to  the  utmost,  and  make  us 
stand  aghast  and  tremble  in  view  of  possible  failure. 

Paul  would  never  have  had  the  oppressive  feeling 
of  his  own  inability  which  made  him  cry  out:  "Who 
is  sufficient  for  these  things?"  had  he  not  been  en- 
gaged in  a  service  whose   effects  for    good    or  ill  he 


122     OUR  INSUFFICIENCY  MADE  SUFFICIENT  IN  GOD 

saw  in  so  many  instances  to  be  immediate,  and  whose 
issues  he  knew,  in  anj'  event,  would  be  endless.  He 
was  under  the  strain  of  an  effort  to  make  known  the 
saving  grace  of  God  in  Christ  all  up  and  down  the 
lands;  and  it  put  every  faculty  and  every  power  of 
his  nature  to  the  test.  He  threw  down  the  gauntlet 
to  prejudice  and  superstition  and  sin,  and  the  con- 
flict had  not  been  long  on  before  he  discovered  that 
it  calls  for  something  beyond  human  skill  and  force 
to  meet  such  foes.  He  was  committed  to  a  task  which 
revealed  his  own   weakness. 

Otherwise  he  would  not  have  known  it.  For  it  is 
not  when  a  man  sits  in  some  sunny  nook,  or  lolls  in 
a  hammock  on  an  August  day,  chatting,  sleeping, 
reading  novels,  or  dreaming  dreams,  that  he  will  be 
likely  to  have  a  tormenting  sense  of  his  own  inca- 
pacity to  do  difficult  things.  There  is  nothing  be- 
fore him  to  which  he  is  not  equal,  — why  get  excited 
and  toss  and  fret?  It  is  when  a  man  undertakes  to 
lift  a  heavy  weight  that  he  finds  out  whether  he  has 
any  strength  or  not.  It  is  when  a  man  undertakes 
to  run  a  race,  and  is  pushed  from  start  to  finish  by 
eager  and  trained  competitors,  that  he  finds  out  how 
well  his  muscles  are  developed,  and  whether  he  has 
any  staying  qualities  in  him.  It  is  when  a  man  un- 
dertakes to  play  a  musical  instrument,  or  to  solve  a 
hard  problem  in  mathematics,  or  to  try  a  case  in 
court,  or  to  conduct  a  diplomatic  negotiation,  that 
he  finds  out —  or  if  he  does  not,  others  do  for  him  — 
whether  he  is  up  to   the   demands   of  these   several 


OUR  INSUFFICIENCY  MADE  SUFFICIENT  IN  GOD     li>3 

duties,  or  is  whollj'  lacking   in    the   needed    ability. 

Some  people  have  never  felt  their  insufficiency  in 
wrestling  with  an  easily  besetting  sin,  because  they 
have  never  faced  an  easily  besetting  sin  in  the  de- 
termination to  conquer  it  or  die  in  the  attempt.  They 
lie  on  their  oars  and  drift  with  the  current  of  their  own 
inclinations  or  impulses  or  habits,  and  so  long  as 
they  do  this  they  have  no  idea  of  the  strength  re- 
quired to  row  against  the  current.  Coleridge  made 
this  discovery  very  soon  when  he  undertook  to  stop 
tlie  use  of  opium.  He  did  not  know  the  strength  of 
the  cords  by  which  he  was  bound  till  he  tried  to 
break  them.  It  is  the  same  with  almost  any  man 
given  over  to  evil  indulgence.  It  is  hard  to  cut 
loose  from  any  dominant  passion;  and  unless  God 
helps,  or  one  is  willing  to  lay  hold  on  the  help  of 
God,  there  is  little  ground  for  hope. 

Some  people  have  never  felt  their  insufficiency  in 
guiding  a  soul  into  the  faith  of  Christ,  because  they 
have  never  tried  to  do  this  kind  of  work.  They 
have  never  felt  their  insufficienc}^  in  the  business  of 
lifting  a  community  to  a  higher  level  of  thinking  and 
acting,  because  they  have  never  lent  a  hand  to  en- 
deavors looking  to  this  end.  They  have  never  felt 
their  insufficiency  in  overcoming  some  definite  form 
of  evil,  and  doing  their  best  to  rid  the  world  of  it, 
because  thev  have  never  stood  front  to  front  with 
any  definite  form  of  evil,  and  openly  and  bravely 
challenged  it  to  mortal  combat.  Quite  likely  there 
may  be   large   numbers   who  fancy  that   they  have 


124     OCR  IXSUFFICIENCY  MADE  Si'FI-ICIEXT  IN  GOD 

enough  wisdom  and  strength  and  grace  to  perform, 
in  short  order,  the  tasks  under  which  others  seem  to 
be  sweating  and  staggering,  if  onl}'  they  were  to 
turn  attention  to  them,  who  would  speedily  change 
their  estimate  of  themselves  and  their  competency  for 
difKcult  undertakings,  were  they  to  make  a  few  ex- 
periments. 

The  matter  is  that  our  views  of  the  difficulties  in- 
volved in  overcoming  evil  in  any  of  its  forms  and 
making  things  better,  are  keyed  too  low.  Let  a 
man  fairly  commit  himself  to  some  moral  enterprise  — 
to  some  movement  which  is  clearly  for  the  good  of 
mankind  and  the  glory  of  God,  but  which  can  be 
made  successful  only  by  counter-matching  cunning 
with  truth,  and  stirring  up  vast  bulks  of  indifference, 
and  dislodging  selfishness  from  strongholds  in  which 
it  has  been  long  maintained,  and  it  will  not  be  long 
before  he  will  be  impressed  with  a  feeling  of  his 
own  littleness  and  impotency.  The  wonder  in  his 
mind  will  come  to  be,  not  why  so  many  hold  back 
or  lose  heart,  but  why  anybody  has  the  courage  to 
pit  his  small  allotment  of  wisdom  and  energy  against 
wrongs  so  shrewd  and  persistent  and  gigantic.  It 
would  seem  a  little  thing  to  get  sin  out  of  a  single 
human  heart,  to  persuade  just  one  soul  to  break  with 
wickedness,  and  turn  the  back  on  iniquit}^;  but  is  it? 
Do  we  find  it  so? 

Man}''  things,  it  is  true,  seem  to  be  done  with 
comparative  ease.  These  things  are  done  by  men 
who  do  not  pretend   to   look   to   God    for    guidance, 


OUR  INSUFFICIENCY  MADE  SUFFICIENT  IN  GOD    125 

and  whose  doings  frequentl}' fill  the  world  with  noise. 
But  these  doings  cut  no  figure  in  the  world's  moral 
progress.  The  thought  now  in  mind  is  of  the  things 
which  are  pre-eminently  worth  doing.  It  is  of  the 
things  which  save  and  bless  souls,  which  save  and 
bless  communities  and  states  and  races,  and  which 
uplift  and  advance  humanity.  All  this  costs  and 
often  baffles  and  appalls.  No  man  can  work  long  in 
these  high  spheres  and  for  these  holj'  ends  without 
a  sense  of  need  which  will  constrain  him  to  break 
out  with  the  question:  "Who  is  sufficient  for  these 
things?"  The  urgency  and  frequency  of  this  cry 
will  measure  appreciation  of  the  difficulties  to  be 
overcome. 

The  encouraging  side  of  this  truth  is  that  just  as 
soon  as  a  man  becomes  sensible  of  his  insufficiency, 
and  really  desires  a  wisdom  and  strength  adequate  to 
the  duties  he  has  to  discharge,  God  will  be  to  him 
the  sufficiency  he  needs.  He  will  come  in  upon  him 
in  forms  of  light  and  courage  and  moral  energy. 

When  God  appeared  to  Moses  in  the  flame  of  the 
burning  bush  at  Horeb,  and  laid  upon  him  the  un- 
precedented responsibility  of  leadership  in  delivering 
the  children  of  Israel  from  their  hard  Egyptian 
bondage,  this  large  providential  man,  who  was  to 
loom  into  such  majestic  proportions  that  his  name 
and  fame  would  fill  all  the  centuries,  shrank  back 
and  said:  "Who  am  I?"  It  is  the  same  as  though 
he  had  asked:  "What  fitness  is  there  in  me  for  this 
extraordinary   undertaking?"     He  was  only  a  shep- 


12G     OUR  INSUFFICIENCY  MADE  SUFFICIENT  IN  GOD 

herd,  leading  the  flocks  of  his  father-in-law,  Jethro, 
back  and  forth  in  the  wilderness  of  Midian,  and  it 
seemed  like  mockery  to  summon  him  to  this  great 
service.  Urged  still  further,  his  reply  was  substan- 
tially the  same:  "O  Lord,  I  am  not  eloquent, neither 
heretofore,  nor  since  Thou  hast  spoken  unto  Thy 
servant;  for  I  am  slow  of  speech  and  of  a  slow 
tongue."  To  his  own  thought  he  had  no  compe- 
tenc}'  to  make  pleas  in  behalf  of  justice  and  freedom 
before  Pharaoh,  and  to  persuade  a  down-trodden 
people,  like  the  Israelites,  that  he  could  secure  their 
emancipation.  But  this  was  the  immortal  answer 
to  his  objection:  "Who  hath  made  man's  mouth  ? 
Or  who  maketh  man  dumb,  or  deaf,  or  seeing,  or 
blind?  Is  it  not  I,  the  Lord?  Now,  therefore,  go, 
and  I  will  be  with  thy  mouth,  and  teach  thee  what 
thou  shalt  speak."  Here  was  hesitancy;  here  was 
timidity;  here  was  even  a  painful  sense  of  insuffi- 
ciency; but  God  said:  "Look  to  Me;  I  will  take  your 
insufficiency,  and  in  m}^  divine  wisdom  and  strength 
make  it  sufficient."  He  did;  and  the  man  so  girded 
and  directed  went  forth  to  one  of  the  most  memor- 
able achievements  of  all  the  ages. 

How  different  would  have  been  the  issue  had 
Moses  been  a  man  full  of  pride  and  self-conceit! 
When  called  and  appointed  of  God  to  this  unique 
service,  suppose  he  had  said:  "Oh  yes,  I  can  do 
it;  I  have  sympathy  with  my  people  in  their  dis- 
tresses; I  know  human  nature;  I  am  instructed  in 
all  the  wisdom   of   the   Egyptians-  and   out  in    this 


OUR  INSUFFICIENCY  MADE  SUFFICIENT  IN  GOD     127 

wilderness  with  the  flocks,  and  under  the  stars, 
and  in  the  midst  of  wild  roving  bands,  both  my  body 
and  my  mind  have  become  seasoned  to  patient  en- 
durance, and  I  can  do  it."  What  would  have  been 
the  result?  In  the  first  place  he  would  not  have 
been  called  to  this  position.  In  the  second  place, 
even  though  he  had  been  called,  and  this  great  and 
sacred  duty  had  been  laid  upon  him,  he  would  not 
have  turned  to  God  for  the  proper  furnishing  for  his 
work  and  hence  would  surel}^  have  failed.  For 
neither  Moses  nor  any  other  man  could  ever  carry 
through  to  its  final  consummation  an  undertaking  so 
prodigious  as  this  without  aid  from  the  wisdom  and 
sti'ength  of  God. 

The  same  hesitation  and  shrinking  are  discovered 
in  Jeremiah.  God  had  a  very  peculiar  and  difficult 
work  for  this  old  prophet  to  do.  Amongst  all  the 
great  names  which  figure  in  biblical  story  there  is 
not  one,  perhaps,  which  is  so  little  understood  and 
so  imperfectly  appreciated.  His  mission  was  indi- 
cated to  him;  but  he  met  it  with  a  protest;  he  was 
not  equal  to  it.  From  the  narrative  we  should  infer 
that  the  man  was  thrown  into  something  like  torture 
when  told  what  was  expected  of  him.  Instantly  and 
instinctively  he  said:  "Not  I !  Not  I!  lam  not 
sufficient  for  these  things."  But  just  this  was  the 
way  to  become  sufficient.  His  sense  of  insufficiency 
was  such  that  God  could  enter  into  him  and  be  his 
sufficiency  in  all  the  ways  of  counsel  and  courage 
and  holy  might. 


128     OUR  INSUFFICIENCY  MADE  SUFFICIENT  IN  GOD 

The  Apostle's  statement,  therefore,  that  he  did  not 
feel  himself  to  be  sufficient  for  these  things  which 
were  laid  upon  him,  but  that  he  found  his  sufficiency 
in  God,  is  at  once  the  culmination  and  the  prophecy 
of  all  experience  in  the  higher  departments  of  relig- 
ious activity.  There  is  no  other  explanation  of  the 
tremendous  changes  which  have  been  wrought  in  the 
world  along  the  line  of  reform  and  the  setting  up  of 
the  kingdom  of  Christ.  Weak  men,  as  the  world 
judges,  men  without  the  advantages  of  wealth  and 
social  position,  and  sometimes  with  verj^  little  of  the 
cultivation  of  the  schools,  have  often  been  mighty  to 
the  pulling  down  of  strongholds.  There  is  not  a 
nation  in  the  world,  nor  a  church,  whose  history 
does  not  confirm  the  assertion  that  a  few  souls,  illu- 
minated with  the  divine  wisdom  and  girded  with  the 
divine  might,  are  more  than  a  match  for  all  the  foes 
that  can  be  marshaled  against  them.  Recall  such 
triumphs  as  those  of  Gideon  and  his  band. 

May  not  the  assertion  be  ventured  that  the  one  su- 
preme demand  of  our  times  is  for  men  and  women  so 
emptied  of  self  —  so  deeply  and  painfully  conscious 
of  their  own  insufficiency  for  the  duties  laid  upon 
them — that  God  can  enter  into  them,  and  fill  them 
with  the  light  and  energy  of  His  Spirit?  This  is  an 
age  of  organization  and  machinery.  If  it  occurs  to 
anybody  to  do  anything,  instead  of  doing  it,  he  starts 
a  society.  We  rely  on  bulk  and  numbers  and  moral 
standing.  What  is  needed  beyond  everything  else 
is  to  fall  back  into  reliance  on  God.      It  is  the  wheel 


OUR  IMSUFFICIESXY  MADE  SUFFICIENT  IN  GOD    129 

in  which  we  trust  rather  than  the  spirit  within  the 
wheel.  There  will  be  strength  in  the  church  of 
Christ,  and  courage  and  a  spirit  of  aggressiveness, 
more  nearly  correspondent  with  the  length  of  our 
membership  rolls  and  the  wealth  represented  in  our 
communicants,  when  there  is  a  deeper  sense  that  all 
real  sufficiency  must  be  found  where  the  great  Apostle 
found  it,  not  in  ourselves  but  in  God.  "I  will 
strengthen  thee"  is  the  divine  promise,  and  the  hu- 
man testimony  is:  "I  can  do  all  things  in  Him 
that  strengtheneth  me." 


FAITH  AND  WORKS. 

For  as  the  body  apart  from  the  spirit  is  dead,  eve7i  so  faith 
apart  from  uwrks  is  dead.     James  2:  26. 

The  topic  for  the  morning  is:     Faith  and  Works. 

The  task  imposed  by  the  topic  is  to  make  some- 
what clearer,  if  possible,  the  mutual  relations  of  the 
two  ideas  and  duties. 

Had  this  book  of  James  never  been  written,  and 
were  some  man  of  the  present  day,  having  the 
strength  of  the  Apostle,  and  looking  at  truth  from 
his  standpoint,  and  feeling,  as  he  did,  the  need  of 
more  Christian  activity,  to  write  it  out  and  give  it  to 
the  world,  word  for  word,  exactly  as  we  find  it,  there 
is  no  doubt  a  great  many  people  would  fall  upon  it 
and  try  to  tear  it  into  shreds  and  patches.  In  their 
eagerness  to  maintain  the  form  of  sound  words  they 
would  not  only  denounce  it  as  lacking  in  a  clear, 
full  statement  of  Christian  doctrine,  but  as  being,  in 
some  particulars,  in  direct  antagonism  to  the  funda- 
mental teaching  of  the  Gospel.  As  it  is  —  a  book  of 
the  New  Testament, having  on  it  the  seal  of  inspiration, 
and  bearing  down  to  us  abundant  authentication  of 
its  genuineness,  Martin  Luther  did  not  hesitate  to 
say  it  was  wanting  in  "all  evangelical  character." 
In    comparison    with  the    Epistles  of  Paul,  and  the 

130 


FAITH  AND  WORKS  131 

Other  New  Testament  writings,  he  called  it  "a  verita- 
ble straw  epistle." 

But  this  simply  shows  that  God's  revelation  is  for 
the  ages,  and,  in  its  many-sided  completeness,  is  not 
infrequently  more  than  any  one  man  can  master  or 
can  hold.  The  great  soul  of  the  German  reformer, 
from  the  nature  of  the  case,  was  all  on  fire  with  the 
cardinal  doctrine  of  faith.  In  him  faith  was  just 
what  James  took  so  much  pains  to  say  all  faith  ought 
to  be  —  a  living  and  fruitful  principle.  While  he  him- 
self failed  to  appreciate  the  idea,  openly  and  fiercely 
arrayed  himself  against  the  idea,  that  any  emphasis 
is  to  be  placed  on  good  works,  those  who  have  come 
after  him,  and  have  entered  into  his  triumphant  la- 
bors, see  clearly  that  the  life  he  lived  was  well-nigh 
an  ideal  exemplification  of  the  instruction  he  belittled. 
Luther  turned  from  James  and  clung  to  Paul ;  but 
in  the  working  out  of  his  convictions,  as  they  were 
inspired  by  Paul,  and  in  his  rugged  victories  for  God 
and  man,  he  illustrated  precisely  ancJ  most  manfully 
the  vital  meanings  of  James.  In  Luther,  as  in  Abra- 
ham and  in  all  true,  heroic  souls,  we  see,  not  one 
Apostle  over  against  another,  but  both  together;  not 
faidi  and  works  in  conflict,  but  faith  and  works  in 
the  harmonious  relations  of  cause  and  effect,  of  seed 
and  fruit,  of    principle  and  principle  applied. 

Here  we  lay  bare  the  secret  of  the  whole  matter. 
There  are  no  irreconcilable  differences  between 
Paul  and  James,  but  both  are  consistent  because  both 
are  true.     Paul  says:     ''Have  faith."     ''Yes,"  says 


132  FAITH  AND  IVORiCS 

James,  "have  faith;  but  see  to  it  that  it  is  a  living 
faith."  Paul  says:  "Let  no  man  put  his  trust  for 
salvation  in  the  works  of  the  law."  "Yes,"  sa3's 
James  again,  "but  let  him  remember  that  faith  as 
well  as  the  law  has  works,  and  the  only  way  in  which 
faith  can  be  shown  to  be  saving  is  by  its  working." 
This  is  only  another  way  of  saying  that  faith  to  be 
faith  must  be  a  faith  that  works  by  love  and  purifies 
the  heart. 

Paul  felt  this  just  as  much  as  James,  for  he  said  it 
over  and  over  again;  just  as  James  felt  the  need  and 
value  of  faith  equally  with  Paul,  for  this  is  the  as- 
sumption on  which  his  whole  epistle  was  built.  Paul 
looked  at  men  as  sinners,  and  he  said:  "No  amount 
of  work  will  save  sinners ;  it  must  be  of  grace  through 
faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  James  looked  at 
men  as  believers  already  in  the  fellowship  of  Jesus, 
and  he  said:  "This  believing  —  this  believing  as  a 
mere  intellectual  operation,  just  as  a  devil  may  be- 
lieve even  to  trembling,  will  do  no  good  without  cor- 
responding activity."  Paul  was  dealing  chiefly  with 
the  two  thoughts  of  grace  and  sin.  James  was  deal- 
ing chiefly  with  the  two  thoughts  of  knowing  and 
doing.    Their  points  of  view  were  not  just  the  same. 

This  letter  of  James,  indeed,  might  be  considered 
a  practical  discourse  founded  on  the  words  of  our 
Lord:  "If  ye  know  these  things,  happy  are  ye  if 
ye  do  them."  For  see  how  in  the  first  chapter  he 
falls  mto  line  with  the  Master's  thought,  and  repro- 
duces it  in  almost  exact  form.      "But  be  ye   doers  of 


FAITH  AN b  WORKS  133 

the  Word,  and  not  hearers  only,  deluding  your  own 
selves."  Nor  was  he  content  simply  to  say  this,  but 
he  enforced  it  with  illustrations:  "For  if  any  one  is 
a  hearer  of  the  Word,  and  not  a  doer,  he  is  like  unto 
a  man  beholding  his  natural  face  in  a  mirror;  for  he 
beholdeth  himself  and  goeth  and  straightway  forget- 
teth  what  manner  of  man  he  was.  But  he  that  look- 
eth  into  the  perfect  law,  the  law  of  liberty,  and  so 
continueth,  being  not  a  hearer  that  forgetteth,  but  a 
doer  that  worketh,  this  man  shall  be  blessed  in  his 
doing." 

With  Paul  faith  is  an  energy  that  must  of  necessity 
produce  results.  How  strongl}''  he  puts  this:  "For 
in  Jesus  Christ  neither  circumcision  availeth  any- 
thing, nor  uncircumcision."  Mere  forms,  that  is,  of 
religious  observances,  so  long  as  they  are  mere  forms 
and  nothing  else,  have  no  value  —  "but  faith  which 
worketh  by  love."  With  James,  on  the  other  hand, 
works  are  a  result  which  demonstrate  the  existence 
and  activity  of  faith.  "Yea,  a  man  will  say,  thou 
hast  faith  and  I  have  works;  show  me  thy  faith  apart 
from  thy  works,  and  I  by  my  works  will  show  thee 
my  faith." 

In  this  wa}^  it  was,  the  Father  of  the  faithful  could 
stand  as  the  type  of  the  doctrine  of  each.  Paul  saw 
in  Abraham  one  who  was  justified  by  a  faith  which 
was  a  working  faith.  James  saw  in  Abraham  one 
who  was  justified  by  the  working  of  faith.  Augustine 
brings  out  the  thought  exactly  when  he  says:  "The 
faith  of  Abraham  was  imputed  to  him  for  righteous- 


134  FAITH  AND  IVORR'S 

ness,  before  it  had  brought  forth  works;  but  it  was  a 
living  faith,  in  which  the  works  lay  as  to  the  germ." 
He  calls  a  faith  which  has  no  work  in  it  "a  palsied 
hand." 

Works  then,  it  may  be  safely  taken  for  granted, 
have  a  very  vital  and  important  relation  to  this  mat- 
ter of  personal  acceptability  with  God.  As  having 
a  decidedly  significant  and,  as  it  seems  to  me,  a 
conclusive  bearing  on  this  point,  let  me  call  attention 
to  this  one  fact  —  the  marked  contrast,  in  form,  be- 
tween the  conditions  laid  down  for  entering  into  the 
Christian  life,  and  the  ground  on  which  final  judg- 
ment, in  almost  every  instance,  is  represented  as 
turning. 

As  to  the  teachings  we  have,  and  the  instances 
given  in  illustration  of  the  teaching,  concerning  the 
way  of  entering  on  this  new,  divine  life,  there  is  no 
need  of  any  elaborate  statement.  It  is  all  summed 
up  in  the  one  word  "believe."  Over  and  over  again 
did  Christ  declare  that  men  become  His  disciples 
by  believing.  "Whosoever  believeth"  is  the  for- 
mulary of  admission  into  the  Christian  life.  The 
preaching  of  the  Apostles  was  uniform  in  this  partic- 
ular. The  Book  of  Acts  makes  this  clear.  No  mat- 
ter what  a  man's  moral  condition,  his  historj', position, 
nationality,  vocation,  previous  creed,  age,  social  re- 
lations, the  one  thing  insisted  on  was  belief  in  Jesus. 
Faith  was  declared  to  be  the  open  gatewa}'  through 
which  men  were  to  walk  into  the  hopes  of  a  blessed 
immortality.     Sometimes  it  is    called  "faith   in    His 


FAITH  AND  IVORICS  135 

name,"  sometimes  "faith  in  His  blood,"  sometimes 
"faith  in  Christ,"  or  "faith  in  the  Son  of  God,"  but 
it  is  always  faith;  faith  going  out  to  and  centering  in 
the  Divine  Person  of  Jesus,  What  Paul  says  to  the 
Ephesians  is  the  statement  which  covers  all  the  in- 
structions: "For  by  grace  are  ye  saved  through  faith." 
No  man  with  the  New  Testament  before  him  may  an- 
nounce any  other  condition,  or  any  additional  con- 
dition. "Come  unto  Me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are 
heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest."  "Whoso- 
ever will,  let  him  take  the  water  of  life  freely." 

Passing  from  the  beginning  to  the  end;  from  the 
representation  of  the  condition  on  which  the  new  life 
in  God  is  begun, to  the  consideration  which  determines 
the  award  in  the  final  judgment,  we  find  the  accent 
changed.  It  is  not  so  much  faith  that  is  emphasized 
as  character.  Listen  to  Paul:  "Wherefore  we  labor 
that  whether  present  or  absent  we  may  be  accepted 
of  Him.  For  we  must  all  appear  before  the  judg- 
ment seat  of  Christ,  that  every  one  ma}''  receive  the 
things  done  in  his  body,  according  to  that  he  hath 
done,  whether  good  or  bad."  God  is  one, so  the  same 
Apostle  tells  us,  "who  will  render  to  every  man  ac- 
cording to  his  deeds."  The  stress  is  laid  on  deeds  —  on 
what  one  has  done  and  has  come  to  be.  In  other 
words,  character  is  made  to  be  the  standard  of  judg- 
ment. In  this  respect  John  is  at  one  with  Paul: 
"Seal  not  the  sayings  of  the  prophecy  of  this  Book, 
for  the  time  is  at  hand  —  he  that  is  unjust  let  him  be 
unjust  still ;  and  he  which  is  filthy   let   him  be  filthy 


136  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

Still;  and  he  that  is  righteous  let  him  be  righteous 
still;  and  he  that  is  holy  let  him  be  holy  still.  And 
behold  I  come  quickly,  and  My  reward  is  with  Me 
to  give  to  every  man  according  as  his  work  shall  be. 
Blessed  are  they  that  do  His  commandments,  that 
they  ma}^  have  right  to  the  tree  of  life,  and  may  en- 
ter in  through  the  gates  into  the  city.  For  without 
are  dogs  and  sorcerers  and  whoremongers  and  mur- 
derers and  idolatars,  and  whosoever  loveth  and  mak- 
eth  a  lie."  Character,  just  what  a  man  has  wrought 
himself  into,  settles  the  question  of  his  destin}'.  Has 
he  been  just  or  unjust?  Clean  or  filthy?  These  are 
the  questions  with  which  one  is  to  be  met  at  the 
great  day.  This  is  exactly  the  way  Jesus  forecasts 
the  final  issue.  'I  was  an  hungered  and  3'e  gave  Me 
meat;  thirsty,  and  ye  gave  Me  drink;  a  stranger, 
and  ye  took  Me  in;  naked,  and  ye  clothed  Me; 
sick,  and  ye  visited  Me;  in  prison,  and  ye  came 
unto  Me;  so  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared  for  you 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world.'  It  was  things 
done  —  things  done  until  they  were  incorporated 
into  character.  "I  was  an  hungered  and  ye  gave  Me 
no  meat;  thirsty,  and  ye  gave  Me  no  drink;  a 
stranger,  and  ye  took  Me  not  in;  naked,  and  ye 
clothed  Me  not;  sick  and  in  prison,  and  ye  visited 
Me  not;  so  go  to  your  own  place  and  to  your  own 
associations,"  It  was  things  not  done  —  not  done 
until  the}''  became  the  expression  and  register  of  the 
real  moral  state  of  the  soul.  Not  a  word  about  faith; 
it  is  all  about  works.     No  word  of  praise   is  given, 


FAITH  AND  WORKS  137 

and  no  word  of  fault  is  uttered,  on  the  basis  of  what 
has  been  believed  or  not  believed.  What  one  be- 
lieves or  does  not  believe  is  not  made  the  basis  of 
the  reward,  it  is  what  one  has  done.  Have  you  done 
this  thing  or  not? 

In  what  way,  now,  is  all  this  to  be  reconciled? 
One  state  of  mind  or  attitude  exalted  at  the  begin- 
ning—  apparently  another  at  the  end.  One  condition 
declared  to  be  a  necessity  at  the  start  —  something 
else  emphasized  at  the  close,  and  that  which  was  so 
necessary  at  the  outset  not  so  much  as  mentioned. 
When  one  comes  in,  the  simple  question  is:  '"''  Do  you 
bclicveT''  If  so,  entrance  is  not  disputed.  When 
one  goes  out  the  question  is:  "  W/iat  have  yott  donef'' 
If  nothing,  then  it  is  all  over  with  him.  The  recon- 
ciliation is  found  precisely  where  James  located  it. 
It  is  found  in  the  statement  that  "faith  apart  from 
works  is  dead."  Or  what  is  the  same  thing,  faith 
apart  from  works  is  no  faith  at  all.  There  is  no 
shifting  of  ground.  It  is  not  maintained  that  faith, 
after  the  initial  step,  is  of  no  further  consequence  to 
one.  All  through,  at  the  beginning,  middle  and 
end,  faith  is  of  all  consequence.  But  a  faith  which 
does  not  carry  consecration  in  it,  and  embrace  head 
and  hand  and  heart  and  all  substance  is  really  not 
faith.  It  may  be  a  full  mental  assent,  it  maj'  have 
in  it  the  form  of  sound  words,  but  a  living  faith  and 
a  loving  faith  it  surely  is  not.  Faith  must  be  all- 
inclusive  of  a  man,  a  controlling  force  in  him,  out- 
reaching  energ3%  life,  before  it  can  be  a  justifying 


138  FAITH  A.VD   Jl^OKA'S 

faith.  A  simple,  easy-going,  technical  utterance  of 
the  phrase,"!  believe,"  is  not  going  to  waf t  an3-bod3'- 
over  into  God's  kingdom.  It  takes  a  different  kind 
of  wing  to  soar  away  to  the  heavenly  gates. 

Here  is  a  hungry  man  before  you,  and  3"0U  have 
the  means  to  feed  him;  but  instead  of  feeding  him 
you  say:  "Oh,  I  believe,  I  believe."  No,  you  don't 
believe,  and  God  will  spew  3'ou  out  for  pretending 
to  believe.  Here  is  a  man  naked,  and  you  can  clothe 
him  if  you  will;  but  instead  of  clothing  him  you  sa3-: 
"Oh,  I  believe,  I  believe."  No,  3^ou  don't  believe, 
and  God  will  send  3'ou  shivering  out  of  His  pres- 
ence. Here  are  the  sick  needing  sympathy,  minis- 
tration, treatment,  care,  and  over  and  above  all  the 
ordinary  obligations  of  life  is  the  dut3'  of  helping 
them;  but  you  say:  "Oh,  I  believe,  I  believe."  No, 
you  don't  believe,  and  God  will  say:  "Get  thee  be- 
hind Me  with  all  such  faith,  for  it  is  no  faith,  but  a 
sham."  Here  is  a  great  woild  to  be  operated  on  in 
the  interest  of  truth  and  purity  and  justice  and  the  set- 
ting up  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ;  all  of  which  means 
somebody's  thought  and  somebod3''s  pra3'ers  and 
somebod3''s  time  and  strength  and  mone3" — means 
each  man's  thought  and  prayers  and  time  and  strength 
and  money, after  the  measure  of  his  ability;  but  an3' 
attempt  to  evade  these  obligations  and  duties 
on  the  ground  that  one  can  articulate  the  formu- 
lar3'  of  belief,  and  that  that  is  enough,  will  be 
met  with  the  same  assertion  that  this  is  not  be- 
lief.     Persons    taking    this    attitude   simply    deceive 


FAITH  AND  WORKS  139 

themselves.  They  are  unprofitable  servants,  and 
God  will  not  own  them.  Faith  means  one's  best 
endeavors  after  the  mind  that  was  in  Christ,  and  to 
work  the  will  of  Christ.  "Not  every  one  that  saith 
unto  Me,  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  My  Father 
which  is  in  heaven." 

With  the  general  subject  of  faith  and  works  opened 
out  in  this  way,  we  are  now  ready  for  certain  in- 
structive and  practical  inferences  which  it  will  be 
worth  our  while  to  treasure. 

I.  Works — good  works  —  are  the  natural  issue 
oj  a  living  faith. 

A  living  faith  moves  right  on  to  good  works  as  a 
matter  of  course,  and  in  them  is  consummated.  Just 
as  waters  pour  out  from  living  fountains,  just  as 
light  and  warmth  from  the  sun, just  as  fragrance  from 
a  fresh  blossom,  just  as  vegetation  springs  from  seed 
planted  in  a  fertile  soil,  just  as  a  song  from  a  bird's 
throat,  or  rain  from  an  over-full  cloud,  or  a  poem 
from  a  surcharged  poet's  soul,  or  beneficence  and  lov- 
ing kindness  and  tender  mercies  from  the  great  heart 
of  God,  —  so  activities  looking  to  one's  own  purify- 
ing and  growth  in  grace  and  knowledge, and  services 
in  behalf  of  every  good  interest  and  of  every  righteous 
cause,  are  the  normal,  and  not  only  normal  but  in- 
evitable, outcome  of  a  living  faith.  A  living  faith 
has  to  show  itself  in  this  way.  This  is  why,  if  a 
man  has  faith  equal  to  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  he 
can  remove  mountains.     A  living  faith  is    dynamic. 


140  FAITH  AND   WORKS 

It  grows,  and  as  it  grows  it  overturns  things.  Mar- 
tin Luther  says,  and  in  this  saying  he  pays  an  un- 
conscious tribute  to  the  James  he  sought  to  belittle: 
"Oh,  faith  is  a  lively,  bus}/,  active  thing,  so  that  it  is 
impossible  for  it  not  to  be  ceaselessly  working  good. 
It  does  not  ask  either  if  good  works  are  to  be  done, 
but  before  it  asks  it  has  done  them,  and  is  ever  do- 
ing. But  whoso  doeth  not  such  work  is  an  unbeliev- 
ing man  —  gropes  and  looks  out  for  faith  and  good 
works,  and  neither  knows  what  is  faith,  nor  what  are 
good  works,  but  for  all,  chatters  and  talks  much  of 
faith  and  good  works.  Faith  is  a  living,  well-weighed 
assurance  of  the  grace  of  God.  .  .  .  Hence,  a 
man  having  this  faith  becomes,  without  constraint, 
ready  and  glad  to  serve  everybody,  to  suffer  many 
things  to  the  praise  of  God  who  has  been  so  gracious 
to  him,  so  that  it  is  impossible  to  separate  works  from 
faith,  yea,  as  impossible  as  it  is  to  separate  burning 
and  shining  from  fire." 

II.  Works  — goodworhs  —  are  the  demonstration 
of  faith. 

How  man}'  times  a  man,  especially  a  man  who  is 
above  the  average  in  earnestness  and  conscientious- 
ness, asks  the  question:  "Well,  now,  am  I  really 
a  disciple  of  Jesus  Christ,  a  child  of  God,  an  heir 
to  the  everlasting  inheritance,  one  who  has  passed 
from  death  unto  life;  or  am  I  deceiving  my  own 
soul,  and  cherishing  hopes  which  I  have  no  right 
to  entertain?''  He  turns  his  views  over,  and  looks 
at  them.      He  examines  his  feelings,  and  wonders  if 


FAITH  AMD  WORKS  141 

they  are  of  the  right  sort.  But  the  true  test  is  the 
outcome.  If  a  man  has  the  faith  which  allies  the 
soul  to  God, there  will  be  evidence  of  it  in  his  acting. 
There  will  be  both  the  spirit  and  the  habit  of  benefi- 
cence. It  will  come  out  in  a  temper  of  self-sacritice 
and  serviceableness.  If  one,  knowing  that  there  has 
been  a  moment  in  his  life  when  he  turned  to  God 
with  full  purpose  of  heart,  can  see  the  natural  fruit- 
age of  faith,  he  may  rest  content.  It  is  the  tendency 
of  faith  to  go  out,  to  go  abroad,  and  to  keep  doing 
this  till  it  is  itself  covered  up,  and  possibly  lost  sight 
of  in  results. 

Here  is  a  little  seed;  it  is  the  seed  of  an  apple;  it 
is  nothing  but  a  seed.  One  can  take  it  and  hold  it 
between  thumb  and  finger.  But  what  is  in  it?  Plant 
it  and  see.  For  when  it  is  planted  in  a  suitable  soil, and 
with  a  suitable  exposure,  there  will  come  forth  from 
it  a  trunk,  branches,  boughs,  leaves,  buds,  blossoms 
and,  in  due  time,  bushels  and  bushels  of  sound, 
ripe,  luscious  apples.  These  are  the  things  which 
lay  back  in  germ  in  the  little  seed  all  the  time.  It 
only  needed  that  opportunity  should  be  given  in 
order  to  set  the  tendencies  in  the  seed  on  towards 
these  results.  But  where  is  that  seed  now?  Without 
the  seed  there  would  have  been  no  tree,  no  apples; 
but  where  is  the  seed?  One  looks  at  the  trunk,  but 
there  is  no  seed  to  be  seen,  and  nothing  like  a  seed. 
One  looks  at  the  branches,  the  twigs,  the  buds,  the 
blossoms,  the  fruit,  and  still  there  is  no  trace  of  the 
seed.      Cut    the  apple  open  and  a  seed  will  be  found 


142  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

in  it  —  a  seed  after  its  kind  —  but  it  is  not  the  seed 
which  was  planted.  From  the  moment  the  seed  was 
planted  it  was  lost  sight  of.  The  fruit  is  the  demon- 
stration of  the  seed.  The  fruit  is  the  seed's  end. 
The  fruit  is  the  thing  which  was  wanted,  and  for 
which  the  seed  was  made  to  exist. 

Faith  is  the  seed.  Everything  lies  wrapped  up  in 
faith.  But  works  —  good  works  —  are  the  fruits.  It 
is  the  fruits  we  are  aiming  at.  It  is  the  fruits  which 
show  us  what  the  seed  was.  In  the  judgment  the 
thing  which  God  takes  in  hand  and  examines,  and 
passes  upon,  is  not  the  seed  but  the  fruit.  At  the 
outset  it  was  the  seed;  at  the  end  it  is  the  fruit. 
One's  care  at  the  beginning  must  be  that  the  seed  is 
good,  and  such  as  will  unfold  into  good  fruit.  But 
it  is  the  fruit  which  demonstrates  the  qualit}^  of  the 
seed.  It  is  the  fruit  on  which  we  lay  stress.  It  is 
the  fruit  we  want;  it  is  the  fruit  which  God  wants. 
When  a  man's  life  suggests  Jesus,  is  after  the  tj'pe 
of  Jesus,  and  is  full  of  the  good  works  of  Jesus,  it  is 
very  certain  his  faith  in  Jesus  is  of  the  right  kind. 

III.  Worlds  —good  zvorks  —  arc  the  things  which 
make  otir  faith  of  value  to  the  world. 

Good  works,  as  we  have  seen,  are  the  credentials 
of  faith.  But  good  works  are  the  commendation  of 
faith.  If  we  want  to  carry  our  faith  forward,  and 
make  it  seem  precious  to  men ;  if  we  want  to  make 
our  faith  a  power  in  the  world  —  a  power  to  emanci- 
pate the  bondaged  and  to  lift  humanity  up;  if  we 
want  to  show  forth  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  lovable 


FAITH  AND  WORKS  143 

and  loving,  and  to  invest  the  blessed  name  of  our 
Heavenly  Father  with  attractiveness,  it  must  be  by 
pushing  our  faith  out  into  a  sweet  and  practical  effi- 
ciency. It  must  be  made  clear  that  our  Gospel  is  a 
Gospel  of  self-denial  and  helpfulness.  We  go  far  to 
discredit  the  faith  reposed  in  Jesus  Christ  in  the  esti- 
mation of  men,  and  to  dishonor  the  salvation  we  have 
through  this  faith,  when  we  are  careless  and  selfish 
in  our  practical  living.  Infidelity  never  has  had  and 
does  not  have  in  our  day  any  weapons  so  powerful 
for  evil  as  the  inconsistencies  and  meannesses  of 
Christian  men. 

Let  the  time  come  when  men  and  women  who 
have  named  the  name  of  the  Lord  are  careful  to  de- 
part from  iniquity;  when  they  are  so  sensitive  to  evil 
that  the  verj'  suspicion  of  wrong  fills  them  with  pain ; 
when  the  mind  that  was  in  Christ  is  in  them,  and 
they  are  self-denying  for  their  fellow-men,  and  fond 
of  doing  good;  when  they  are  no  longer  conformed 
to  this  world,  but  are  transformed  by  the  renewing 
power  of  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit;  when,  like 
Paul,  the  life  they  live  in  the  flesh  is  a  life  of  faith 
in  the  Son  of  God;  when  they  make  it  apart  of  their 
daily  duty  to  reclaim  and  restore  the  wandering,  to 
help  the  needy,  to  aid  in  bearing  the  burdens  of 
those  who  are  heavy  laden  through  the  misfortunes 
of  life  or  the  allotments  of  Providence,  —  then  the 
skepticisms  which  are  abroad, like  so  many  owls  and 
bats,  will  betake  themselves  into  the  darkness.  There 
would   be    no  gainsaying  a  faith  which  should    be 


144  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

commended  to  the  world  in  millions  of  lives,  at  once 
consistent  from  a  moral  standpoint,  and  all  the  time 
flowing  out  in  streams  of  beneficence. 

This  is  worthy  the  most  serious  thought.  There 
is  no  advocacy  of  the  faith  to  which  we  cling  so 
effective  as  earnest  and  consistent  living.  There 
are  no  answers  to  the  objections  which  men  bring 
against  the  Gospel  so  conclusive  as  the  good  deeds 
done  by  those  who  believe  in  Christ.  Just  in  the 
ratio  in  which  Christian  men  and  women  are  ov\y 
nominally  Christian,  but  are  worldly,  swayed  by  the 
lusts  and  ambitions  of  the  world,  infidelity  and  im- 
morality will  come  to  the  front.  Just  in  the  ratio  in 
which  Christian  men  and  women  are  pure  and  lov- 
ing and  helpful,  infidelit}'  and  immorality  will  give 
way,  and  our  humanity  will  move  on  towards  the 
ideal ;  or,  to  put  it  all  into  a  word,  our  faith  must  be 
real  in  order  to  have  anj'  power  in  it.  There  is  no 
power, at  best  only  a  temporary  semblance  of  power, 
in  an}'  sort  of  a  sham.  A  sham  faith  is  amongst  the 
weakest  and  most  contemptible  of  all  the  shams  with 
which  the  world  is  afflicted. 

IV.  //  is  throtcgk  good  ■wo7'ks,  woi'ks,  that  is, 
which  iwc  zuroiight  in  the  spirit  of  love,  that  our  own 
faith  is  quickened  and  strengthened. 

We  very  often,  and  ver^^  fitly,  pray  for  an  increase 
of  faith.  Nothing  tends  more  surely  to  this  than  try- 
ing to  do  something  which  shall  make  men  think  of 
the  spirit  that  was  in  the  Master.  A  word  spoken 
with  no  other  thought   than   that  it  is   for  Jesus  the 


FAITH  AND  WORKS  145 

Lord ;  a  deed  done  with  no  other  aim  than  to  be 
found  in  line  with  the  interest  of  the  Master,  always 
reacts  to  the  enlarging  of  our  spiritual  life. 

This  is  the  universal  testimony  and  experience. 
Workers  are  always  ready  to  testify  that  their  faith 
is  never  so  clear  and  strong  as  when  they  are  dili- 
gently at  service  for  the  Son  of  God.  They  say: 
"At  times  V\?hen  we  are  all  absorbed  in  our  Christian 
activities,  the  word  of  God  seems  more  precious,  the 
promises  of  God  seem  greater,  salvation  through  a 
crucified  Redeemer  seems  more  than  ever  needful  to 
men,  and  more  than  ever  adapted  to  their  actual 
necessities,  and  this  whole  vast  realm  of  spiritual 
verity  and  life  seems  lighted  up  as  with  a  new  ra- 
diance from  heaven."'  There  are  the  common-sense 
and  the  logic  of  a  true  philosophy  in  it  all.  Action 
clarifies,  action  brushes  the  clouds  out  of  the  sky 
and  clears  the  cobwebs  out  of  the  brain;  action  puts 
the  whole  moral  system  in  a  healthy  condition,  and 
one  can  see  with  new  clearness. 

Why,  a  man  may  listen,  and  listen,  and  listen  for- 
ever, and  not  know  so  much  about  the  truth  in  cer- 
tain vital  phases  of  it,  as  he  can  learn  by  one  hour  of 
faithful  dealing  with  a  soul  that  is  deeply  conscious 
of  sin  and  is  in  earnest  in  the  determination  to  be 
saved  from  sin.  The  twists  and  kinks  men  often 
get  into  their  heads  on  theological  points  come  partly 
because  they  are  simply  theorizers  and  not  practical 
workers;  and  their  eccentric  and  imperfect  ideas 
grow  out  of  their  partial  experiences. 


146  FAITH  AND   WORKS 

It  is  not  to  be  inferred  from  this  that  all  men  are 
to  do  the  same  kind  of  work.  Far  from  it.  Not  all 
birds  sing  the  same  song.  Not  all  trees  yield  the 
same  fruit.  Not  all  mines  give  forth  the  same  pre- 
cious metals.  Not  all  fields  wave  with  the  same  har- 
vests. The  law  is  individuality,  variety.  Not  all 
are  fitted  for  the  same  kind  of  work.  There  is  one 
Spirit;  but  there  are  diversities  of  gifts.  There  is 
one  kingdom ;  but  the  sphere  and  needs  and  oppor- 
tunities of  the  kingdom  are  manifold.  One  can  do 
one  thing  better  —  another  another.  One  has  his 
special  service  defined  for  him  in  his  capabilities  or 
his  circumstances.  Providence  indicates  another 
sort  of  service  for  somebody  else.  In  the  divine 
economy  there  is  a  place  for  each  man  and  a  man 
for  each  place;  a  work  for  each  worker. 

For  one  thing  ever}^  man  who  has  confessed  Christ 
is  to  live  his  daily  life,  and  do  his  daily  work,  in  a 
way  to  magnify  his  Master's  name.  A  man  who 
does  this,  whether  on  farm  or  vessel,  in  store  or  mill, 
or  making  bricks,  or  driving  nails,  or  shoving 
planes,  or  weaving  cloths,  or  building  houses  and 
bridges,  or  teaching,  or  setting  types,  or  surveying, 
or  practicing  law  or  medicine,  or  writing  books  — 
that  is,  does  his  work  honestly,  worthily,  so  that  it 
can  be  said  of  it,  it  is  a  true,  genuine  work  —  is 
showing  his  faith  by  his  works,  and  is  doing,  more- 
over, what  will  be  sure  to  react  to  Increase  his   faith. 

Bat  over  and  above  this  each  ought  to  have  some 
one  thing  at  least,  some  one  thing,  it  may  be,  which 


FAITH  AXD  WORKS  147 

will  involve  self-denial,  thought,  watchfulness,  sac- 
rifice, which  is  done  purely  for  Christ.  When  a 
man  is  able  to  say:  "I  do  this  not  because  it  is 
my  inclination,  nor  because  I  think  I  can  do  it  bet- 
ter than  anybody  else  —  whether  it  be  teaching  in 
the  Sunda3'-schoo],  or  giving  money,  or  visiting  the 
sick,  or  helping  the  needy  and  the  tempted,  or  lead- 
ing in  prayer  in  the  social  meeting,  or  whatever  else 
it  may  be  —  but  I  do  it  for  Christ's  sake,  and  to  bring 
those  for  who-m  He  died  into  sympathy  with  Him," 
it  is  an  assurance  to  his  own  soul  that  he  is  fully  in 
earnest,  and  that  he  is  not  deceiving  himself  by  being 
a  hearer  only,  and  not  a  doer  of  the  Word. 

My  prescription  for  those  whose  faith  is  weak,  or 
whose  faith  is  waning,  possibly,  and  whose  grasp, 
therefore,  on  the  things  of  God  is  feeble,  and  whose 
religion  is  without  any  element  of  satisfaction  or 
comfort  in  it,  is  —  go  to  work.  It  is  not  reading,  it 
is  not  meditation,  it  is  not  taking  in , through  the  ear, 
it  is  not  even  prayer  altogether, which  will  straighten 
out  one's  ideas  and  bring  God  nearer  to  the  soul, 
but  doing  something  —  doing  something  in  the  spirit 
and  for  the  ends  of  the  Divine  Lord.  Keep  the  brain 
busy,  keep  the  heart  bus}^  keep  the  hands  busy,  in 
the  service  of  Him  who  went  about  doing  good  and 
who  died  for  us,  and  there  will  be  both  robustness 
and  joy  in  one's  faith. 

Both,  then,  are  what  we  want.  We  want  faith 
and  we  want  works.  We  want  a  faith  which  works  by 
love;  and  we  want  works  which    have  in  them  the 


148  FAITH  AA^D  WORKS 

inspiration  of  faith,  and  are  the  outcome  of  faith. 
Not  one  alone.  Not  one  over  against  the  other,  but 
both  —  faith  and  works. 

Let  us  not  forget  that  we  are  living  at  an  hour 
and  in  circumstances  in  which  the  demand  is  im- 
perative for  things  to  be  done.  When  we  think  of 
how  much  there  is  to  be  done  in  our  city;  in  all  the 
great  cities  of  the  land;  in  our  nation;  in  the  world; 
how  much  is  to  be  done  for  particular  classes,  for 
children,  for  drunkards,  for  gamblers,  for  populations 
which  know  nothing  and  care  nothing  for  our  Gos- 
pel of  Jesus  Christ,  it  seems  appalling;  and  there  is 
a  temptation  to  sit  down  and  fold  the  hands  and  do 
nothing.  For  what  will  the  little  which  one  person 
can  do  amount  to  against  this  great  bulk  of  work 
which  cries  out  to  be  done?  But  each  standing  in 
his  own  place  and  lot,  each  doing  what  he  can  day 
by  day,  in  the  cause  and  for  the  interest  of  the  king- 
dom, in  God's  own  time  will  solve  the  problem  of 
the  world's  conversion  to  the  faith  of  the  Son  of 
God,  and  the  turning  over  of  the  nations  of  the  earth 
to  our  Lord  and  His  Christ. 


A  DIFFERENCE    BETWEEN  THEM. 

But  all  tlie  children  of  Israel  had  light  in    their  dwellings. 

Exodus  10. •  2J. 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  spirit  and  method 
and  wisdom  and  taste  of  some  of  the  more  earnest 
of  the  evangelists  who  appear  before  our  churches 
from  time  to  time,  and  whatever  may  be  the  outcome 
of  their  labors,  they  are  certainly  right  in  the  sharp 
emphasis  they  lay  on  the  difference  which  ought  to 
exist  between  the  children  of  God  and  the  children 
of  the  world. 

It  is  not  the  same  thing  to  be  in  the  church  and  to 
be  out  of  the  church.  It  is  not  the  same  thing 
to  live  a  life  of  faith  on  the  Son  of  God,  and 
a  life  which  is  molded  on  the  policies  of  a  time- 
serving generation  and  the  customs  and  fash- 
ions of  a  pleasure-seeking  society.  The  word 
of  Jesus  is:  "Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  Mam- 
mon." The  word  of  the  Apostle  is:  "Be  not  con- 
formed to  this  world,  but  be  ye  transformed."  The 
word  of  still  another  Apostle  is:  "Love  not  the 
world,  neither  the  things  that  are  in  the  world.  If 
any  man  love  the  world,  the  love  of  the  Father  is 
not  in  him.  For  all  that  is  in  the  world,  the  lust  of 
the  flesh  and    the    lust    of  the    eyes  and  the    vain 

149 


150  A  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  THEM 

glory  of  life, is  not  of  the  Father,  but  is  of  the  world." 
"Come  out  from  among  them,  and  be  ye  separate,-' 
saith  the  Lord.  "Holy,  harmless,  undefiled,  sepa- 
rate from  sinners''  is  the  description  of  Him  whom 
we  are  to  follow,  and  whom  we  are  to  be  like. 

It  is  right  to  say  these  things  and  to  insist  upon 
them.  Whoever  says  them  utters  the  truth.  It  is 
not  seemly  that  a  man's  membership  in  the  church 
should  be  known  only  through  the  published  lists  of 
the  manual.  It  is  not  seemly  that  a  disciple  of  Jesus 
Christ  should  be  just  as  well  up  in  horse-racing  and 
theater-going  and  card-playing  and  all  the  gaieties 
and  frivolities  of  the  ball-room  as  the  most  accom- 
plished worldling.  It  is  not  according  to  any  New 
Testament  conception  of  home  relations  and  home 
responsibilities  that  a  Christian  husband  and  father 
should  leave  his  wife  and  children  and  wander  off  to 
spend  his  evenings  amid  the  elegant  dissipations  of 
the  club.  Among  the  dread  revelations  of  the  world 
to  come  will  be  some  of  the  temptations  yielded  to, 
and  some  of  the  bad  lessons  learned,  and  some  of 
the  experiences  registered,  within  the  retreats  of 
these  popular  clubs.  It  is  nothing  short  of  a  mon- 
strous perversion  of  the  whole  idea  of  denjnng  one's 
self,  and  taking  up  one's  cross,  and  following  Jesus, 
to  make  public  confession  of  faith  in  the  Divine  Re- 
deemer, and  then  to  go  right  on,  living  in  the  realm 
of  the  appetites  and  the  passions  and  the  senses, 
pursuing  business  and  politics  and  pleasure,  after 
precisely  the  same  methods  and    with  the   same   ab- 


A  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  THEM  151 

sorbing  eagerness,  of  men  who  deliberately  put  away 
from  their  minds  all  thought  of  the  future  and  live  on 
from  day  to  day  without  God  and  without  hope.  It 
may  be  scouted  as  a  Puritan  notion  —  narrow,  bigoted 
and  without  a  place  in  the  broader  and  freer 
views  of  this  liberal  age;  but  a  life,  to  fall  in  at  all 
with  the  Bible  ideal,  will  be  other  than  an  ordinary 
worldly  life.  It  will  be  conspicuous,  not  alone  for 
the  creed  to  which  assent  is  given  and  the  warmth 
of  its  holy  enthusiasm, but  for  the  elevation  of  its  sen- 
timents and  the  purity  of  its  thoughts  and  aims.  So 
far  from  superseding  the  high  and  exacting  standards 
of  other  days,  the  advancement  of  the  present  time 
underscores  the  obligation  to  be  clean  and  straight- 
forward and  everywhere  and  always  exemplary. 
There  never  was  a  time  when  gross,  selfish  living, 
when  drinking  and  gambling, and  lying  and  cheating, 
and  taking  advantage  of  technicalities  in  bargains 
and  laws  to  overreach  men  in  business  transactions, 
were  more  mischievous  than  now,  and  when  the 
evil  influences  of  such  proceedings  would  be  likely 
to  reach  farther.  It  is  bad  in  anybody;  it  is  harm- 
ful in  anybody;  but  when  a  man  who  is  known  to 
have  avowed  his  faith  in  Christ  is  mean  and  mor- 
ally crooked,  and  full  of  all  sorts  of  schemes  for 
evading  his  own  responsibilities  a'nd  getting  the 
better  of  other  people,  it  is  a  recreancy  to  be  rebuked 
right  and  left.  There  is  too  much  of  this.  The  in- 
stances are  too  many  in  which  church-members  are 
constantly  taxing  their  associates  to  exercise  the 
charity  which  covers  a  multitude  of  sins. 


152  A  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  THEM 

Even  where  there  are  no  flagrant  transgressions, 
there  is  a  secular  temper  which  weakens  faith,  and 
chills  love,  and  abates  zeal.  There  is  no  use  in  de- 
nying it,  the  church  is  crippled  and  compromised  by 
the  worldly  spirit  which  pervades  it.  While  the  few 
are  earnest,  devoted,  self-sacrificing,  conscientious 
in  ascertaining  and  observing  God's  will,  studious  of 
ways  and  methods  in  which  they  can  project  their 
energy  forward  along  lines  of  Christian  activity,  and 
spend  and  be  spent  in  the  service  of  the  kingdom, 
the  many  are  at  ease,  going  at  the  same  gait  at 
which  the  world  goes,  speaking  in  the  same  accents 
of  indifference  and  selfishness  with  which  the  world 
speaks,  and  finding  the  law  of  their  life,  not  in  the 
open  Word  of  God,  not  in  the  example  of  Jesus 
Christ,  not  in  the  pleading  needs  of  humanity,  but  in 
their  own  inclinations  and  love  of  indulgence  and 
the  average  conduct  of  well-to-do  people  about  them. 

We  ma}'  quarrel  with  men  who  tell  us  these  things, 
and  say  they  are  impertinent, coarse,  vulgar, or  even  go 
so  far  as  to  lodge  against  them  the  crowning  demerit 
of  being  ungrammatical,  but  they  are  good  whole- 
some things  to  be  told  to  us.  We  better  listen.  Bet- 
ter smash  in  the  doors,  and  haul  men  and  women 
and  children  out  of  their  beds  quite  unceremoniously 
than  to  wait  for  introductions  and  all  the  forms  of 
etiquette  when  the  house  is  on  fire.  There  are  a 
plenty  of  men  who  are  prophesying  smooth  things  to 
us  in  faultless  diction.  If  there  is  anybody  to  come 
and  tell  us  God's  truth,  let  us  receive  it,  though  it  be 


A  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  THEM  153 

clothed  in  the  homely  garb  of  bluntest  speech. 
When  men  are  riding  straight  down  to  perdition  in 
the  gilded  chariots  of  culture  and  mutual  admiration, 
it  can  do  no  harm  to  jolt  the  wheels  just  a  little  with 
a  few  cobble  stones  of  plain  Anglo-Saxon.  We 
tolerate  nakedness  in  the  theater;  we  fairly  dote 
over  the  nude  in  art;  and  if  a  man  does  not  blush  at 
some  of  the  exhibitions  which  are  made  at  what  are 
called,  with  fine  irony,  "full  dress"  parties,  it  is  be- 
cause his  native  modesty  has  been  laid  in  sacrifice  on 
the  altar  of  custom ;  let  us  not  squirm  if,  now  and 
then,  we  are  treated  to  the  naked  truth  1 

The  misfortune  is  that  we  are  more  sensitive  on 
the  side  of  aesthetics  than  we  are  on  the  side  of 
morals.  Things  abhorrent  to  God  and  man  and  all 
decency, are  done, and  we  are  not  over-much  shocked ; 
but  whoever  tells  the  story,  does  it  at  infinite  risk. 
There  is  likely  to  be  ten  times  as  much  indignation 
and  protest  against  the  indelicacy  of  the  story  as 
against  the  measureless  iniquity  lying  behind  the 
story. 

The  early  experience  of  Parkhurst  was  not  ex- 
traordinary. It  is  a  common  thing  to  pick  flaws  in 
men  and  to  hamper  them  with  criticisms,  if  we  do 
not  happen  to  like  the  things  they  bring  us.  If  our 
fond  dreams  are  disturbed;  if  our  pride  is  wounded; 
if  our  little  formulas  of  propriety  are  ignored;  if  our 
sensibilities  are  offended;  if  our  ease  is  broken  in 
upon  and  our  interests  are  in  any  way  invaded,  then 
there  is  trouble  at  once. 


154  A  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  THEM 

Elijah  went  to  Ahab  with  a  message  from  God; 
straightway  there  was  an  assault  on  the  messenger, 
and  he  had  to  flee  for  his  life.  Isaiah  did  not  mince 
matters  as  he  charged  home  their  crimes  and  delin- 
quencies upon  the  people.  "Ah,  sinful  nation,  a 
people  laden  with  iniquity."  "From  the  sole  of  the 
foot  even  unto  the  head,  no  soundness."  "How  is 
the  faithful  city  become  an  harlot!"  "Full  of  mur- 
derers;" "silver  debased  into  dross;"  "wine  mixed 
with  water ;"  "  the  princes  in  rebellion  and  companion- 
ing with  thieves ;""briber3f  everywhere;"  "fatherless 
children  and  widows  wronged  without  compunction." 
The  tradition  is  that  they  sawed  him  asunder. 
From  Josiah  to  the  captivity,  Jerusalem  swarmed 
with  easy-going  prophets,  who  said  it  was  all  a 
mistake  about  the  wrath  of  God  being  kindled  against 
them,  and  punishments  impending  over  them ;  but 
Jeremiah  went  right  on  telling  the  truth,  thrusting 
the  probe  to  the  very  core  of  the  national  soreness, 
and  reiterating  in  angered  ears  that  there  was  nothing 
short  of  seventy  years  of  exile  and  bondage  and  op- 
pression for  their  gross  idolatry  and  corruption;  and 
the}^  repaid  him  with  slander  and  imprisonment  and 
every  abuse.  John  the  Baptist  ventured  to  talk  very 
plainly  —  and  to  be  very  personal  in  his  talk  —  about 
adultery  committed  by  parties  in  high  station.  Mrs. 
Herod's  delicate  and  sensitive  soul  was  offended, and 
the  result  was  that  the  head  of  this  faithful  preacher 
of  righteousness  was  borne  to  her  on  a  charger. 
Paul  was  master  of  no  art  —  scholar  and  logician  and 


A  DIFFERENCE  BETIVEEN  THEM  155 

rhetorician  as  he  was  —  by  which  he  could  tell  the 
truth  to  men,  and  at  the  same  time  not  madden  large 
numbers  of  them.  Plain-speaking  —  dissatisfaction, 
opposition,  assaults  one  after  another,  arrests,  ex- 
pulsion from  this  place  and  that,  final  martyrdom  — 
that  is  the  story  in  outline  on  the  secular  side  of  the 
apostles'  ministry. 

Even  the  Great  Teacher  was  never  able  to  lay 
bare  the  self-conceit  and  the  pride  and  the  worldli- 
ness  and  the  extortions  and  the  corruptions  of  people 
who  considered  themselves  respectable,  without  im- 
mediate peril  to  peace  and  life.  Poor,  miserable 
sinners  —  men  and  women  who  were  conscious  there 
was  nothing  in  them  but  moral  rottenness  —  were  glad 
in  his  searching  words,  for  they  wanted  to  see  them- 
selves as  God  saw  them,  and  to  know  their  needs, 
and  to  be  helped;  and  they  had  sense  enough  to  un- 
derstand there  was  no  help  for  them  but  in  utmost 
openness  and  sincerity.  But  when  He  laid  the  scourge 
on  the  backs  of  men  who  were  in  good  and  regular 
standing  in  the  church,  and  who  moved  in  the  best 
circles,  and  who  helped  set  the  fashions  in  dress  and 
equipage  and  amusements  and  benevolence  and  all 
that,  there  was  wincing,  and  growling,  and  gnash- 
ing of  teeth,  and  more  than  once  there  had  to  be  a 
hurried  escape  from  violent  hands. 

No.  Men  who  have  had  messages  from  God  to 
a  gay  and  adulterous  generation,  and  whose  souls 
have  been  on  fire  with  the  purpose  to  lift  the  church 
out  of  formalism  and  worldliness  and  turn  hearts  anew 


15G  A  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  THEM 

to  faith  and  love  and  righteousness,  have  never  had  an 
easy  time  of  it.  If  it  has  not  been  one  objection,  it  has 
been  another.  They  said  of  Martin  Luther  that  he 
vv'as  vulgar  and  over-plain  of  speech.  The  question 
was  not:  "Are  his  charges  true?"  but:  "Are  they 
preferred  vv'ith  sufficient  refinement  of  language?" 
They  said  of  John  Knox  that  he  was  coarse,  and 
that  his  rudeness  in  speaking  of  the  dignitaries  of 
church  and  state  ought  to  be  checked  and  punished. 
The  holy  horror  was  felt  not  at  the  wrongs  which 
were  inflicted  on  the  people  by  the  heartless  author- 
ities, but  at  the  manner  in  which  these  wrongs  were 
assailed.  It  was  going  to  bring  religion  into  re- 
proach, and  hinder  the  cause.  They  said  of  John 
Wesley  that  he  was  ambitious  and  heady.  Had  John 
Wesley  taken  counsel  of  other  people's  fears  and 
other  people's  tastes,  there  would  have  been  no 
Methodist  church  in  the  world  to-day. 

Here  the  main  point  of  the  whole  business  —  which 
is  that  there  is  meant  to  be  a  difference,  and  ought 
to  be  a  difference,  and  will  be  a  difference  if  be- 
lievers are  true  to  their  Lord  and  true  to  themselves, 
between  the  people  of  God  and  the  people  of  the 
-world  —  opens  out  to  us  once  more.  On  this  there 
are  two  thoughts  to  be  pressed: 

The  first  one  is  that  God  is  trying,  and  through 
all  the  ages  of  the  church  has  been  trying,  to  make 
it  evident  to  all  eyes  that  men  who  avow  their  faith 
in  Him,  and  claim  to  be  walking  in  His  fellowship 
and  to  be  aiming  to  do  His  will,  are  to  be  unlike  — 


A  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  THEM  157 

unlike  in  the  habit  and  temper  with  which  they  con- 
duct secular  affairs,  and  eminently  unlike  in  their 
moral  and  spiritual  superiority  — to  the  unbelieving 
and  indifferent  masses  about  them.  "Be  ye  holy, 
for  I  am  holy." 

In  the  old  version  the  people  of  God  are  called  a 
-peculiar  -people.  "But  ye  are  a  chosen  generation, 
a  royal  priesthood, an  holy  nation,  a  peculiar  people." 
It  is  an  old  familiar  witticism  to  say,  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  some  of  them  are  "peculiar"  —  very 
"peculiar."  But  the  new  version  removes  all  possi- 
bility of  a  double  significance  and  the  play  of  sar- 
casm by  translating  the  phrase  as  a  -people  Jor  God's 
own  possession.  That  is  what  "peculiar"  means, 
and  that  is  what  the  "peculiar"  is  to  consist  in  —  be- 
ing God's  own.  In  all  their  powers  and  faculties, 
in  all  their  culture  and  substance,  in  all  the  possibil- 
ities of  their  being,  the  people  of  God  are  to  be 
(jod's  own. 

Sentences  from  the  sacred  Scriptures  already 
quoted  make  this  more  than  manifest.  God  is  never 
weary  of  emphasizing  the  unlikeness,  as  it  exists  in 
His  mind  and  aim,  between  men  who  are  of  the 
earth,  earth}^,  and  men  who  are  taken  up  with 
heavenly  vocations.  In  multitudinous  precepts, 
running  all  the  way  from  Genesis  to  Revelation ; 
through  the  exalted  standards  held  up  by  a  long  line 
of  prophets  and  apostles  and  the  protests  which  fell 
from  their  lips  against  all  sorts  of  iniquity ;  through 
the  ministry  of  the  Spirit,  guiding  into  the  truth,  en- 


158  A  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  THEM 

forcing  duty,  rebuking  for  sin  and  unrighteousness, 
and  girding  with  strength  so  that  one  shall  be  equal 
to  burden-bearing  and  to  sharp  moral  conflicts;  in 
the  history  of  the  church,  which  has  been  invincible, 
aggressive,  victorious  always  when  it  has  been  firm 
in  its  grasp  on  faith  and  simple  and  correct  and  pure 
in  its  walk  before  the  world,  and  which  has  invari- 
ably suffered  defeat  and  been  forced  down  into  the 
valley  of  humiliation  whenever  it  has  come  under 
the  power  of  material  policies  and  ambitions;  and  in 
providences,  too,  in  which  He  has  shown  the  tokens 
of  His  favor  to  those  who  were  His  own,  and  has 
set  the  marks  of  His  disapprobation  on  the  impure 
and  the  disobedient  and  the  scheming  and  selfish  — 
God  has  said:  "My  people  must  be  unlike  the  peo- 
ple of  the  world." 

That  is  a  very  significant  and  instructive  fact  which 
our  text  recites  concerning  the  children  of  Israel 
down  in  Goshen.  "But  all  the  children  of  Israel 
had  light  in  their  dwellings."  Nobod}'  else  had 
light;  but  the  children  of  Israel  had  it. 

Back  at  the  fourth  plague  God  had  made  promise 
of  His  special  interposition  in  behalf  of  the  oppressed 
Israelites.  "And  I  will  sever  in  that  day  the  land  of 
Goshen,  in  which  my  people  dwell,  that  no  swarms  of 
flies  shall  be  there;  to  the  end  that  thou  mayest  know 
that  I  am  the  Lord  in  the  midst  of  thee.  And  I  will 
put  a  division  between  my  people  and  thy  people," 
This  was  what  the  Lord  instructed  Moses  to  say  to 
the  obstinate  and  obdurate    ruler  of  the  Egyptians. 


A  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  THEM  159 

Consequently,  when  the  threatened  swarm  of 
Jlies  came,  and  the  house  of  Pharaoh  was  filled, 
and  the  houses  of  the  servants  were  filled,  and  there 
were  inconvenience  and  annoyance  everywhere,  the 
children  of  Israel  were  unmolested.  There  was  "a 
division"  between  the  people  of  God  and  the  people 
of  Pharaoh. 

When  the  swarm  of  flies  was  followed  by  the 
plague  of  a  very  grievous  murrain,  and  the  horses 
and  the  asses  and  the  camels  and  the  oxen  and  the 
sheep  of  Egypt  were  attacked  with  the  fatal  malady, 
there  was  again  "a  division"  between  them,  and  "of 
the  cattle  of  the  children  of  Israel  died  not  one." 
God  set  Flis  protecting  mark  even  upon  the  cattle  of 
the  children  of  Israel. 

It  was  the  same  thing  again  when  the  awful  storm 
of  lightning  and  thunder  and  hail  broke  over  the 
land,  and  fire  ran  along  the  ground,  and  the 
heavens  raged  and  rained  down  their  torrents  of 
quick  destruction,  and  men  and  beasts  were  smitten, 
and  trees  were  overturned  and  broken,  and  herbs 
were  swept  away  from  the  fields,  and  it  was  terror 
and  wasting  all  up  and  down.  There  was  "a  divi- 
sion" between  the  people  of  God  and  the  people  of 
Pharaoh.  "Only  in  the  land  of  Goshen,  where  the 
childien  of  Israel  were,  was  there  no  hail."  There 
was  a  moral  purpose  in  the  storm ;  and  sleet  and 
hail  and  wind  and  flashing  lightning  swept  along  the 
path,  and  made  the  circuit  God  had  appointed. 
Awful    storm   smiting   the  Egyptians,  but  out  there 


160  A  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  THEM 

in  the  land  of  Goshen,  among  the  children  of  Israel, 
all  was  calm  gnd  quiet  as  a  summer  morning. 

Further  on  there  came  the  plague  of  the  thick  dark- 
ness—  even  of  "a  darkness  that  might  be  felt."  "And 
Moses  stretched  forth  his  hand  toward  heaven ;  and 
there  was  a  thick  darkness  in  all  the  land  of  Egypt 
three  days.  They  saw  not  one  another,  neither  rose 
any  from  their  place,  for  three  days."  As  the  Au- 
thor of  the  Book  of  Wisdom  sa3^s:  "They  were  not 
only  prisoners  of  darkness  and  fettered  with  the 
bonds  of  a  long  night;  but  they  were  horribly  aston- 
ished likewise,  and  troubled  with  strange  appa- 
ritions." But  all  the  children  oj  Israel  had  light  in 
their  dwellings.  There  was  sunshine  in  Goshen. 
No  man  was  hindered  in  his  labor.  Each  could  rise 
as  usual;  each  could  come  and  go  at  his  pleasure; 
and  the  sun  and  moon  and  stars  rendered  their 
wonted  service.  It  vvas  to  the  Egyptians  alone  that 
there  came  the  terrible  and  awful  pre-intimation  of 
the  blackness  of  darkness  which  is  the  fit  expression 
and  fit  reward  of  deliberate  sin.  Not  always,  not 
often  in  such  a  signal  way  as  this  does  the  warning 
come,  but  sooner  or  later  sin  enshrouds  in  darkness, 
and  men's  perceptions  become  clouded  and  they 
can  not  see.  There  is,  perhaps,  hardly  another  em- 
blem better  suited  to  express  God's  thought  of  sin 
and  to  foreshadow  what  will  be  the  final  consequences 
of  sin,  than  this  deep  darkness  of  Egypt,  which  for 
three  daj^s  held  the  people  in  the  depths  and  gloom 
of  night. 


A  DTFFEREMCE  BETWEEN  THEM  161 

But  there  was  sunshine  in  Goshen.  God  gave  to 
the  children  of  Israel  that  token  of  His  care  and  of 
His  intent  to  lead  them  out  from  their  bondage  and 
oppression  and  sorrows  and  tears.  He  made  it  as 
evident  as  light  is  from  darkness,  by  His  special  and 
eminent  regard  for  his  own,  that  there  was  a  differ- 
ence between  the  children  of  Israel  and  the  children 
of  Pharaoh. 

It  has  been  conjectured  that  it  was  with  reference 
to  this  fact  in  the  history  of  the  chosen  people,  and 
the  "division"  made  between  them  and  their  ene- 
mies, that  the  prophet  broke  out  in  the  words: 
"Arise,  shine,  for  thy  light  is  come,  and  the  glory 
of  the  Lord  is  risen  upon  thee.  For  behold,  dark- 
ness shall  cover  the  earth,  and  gross  darkness  the 
people;  but  the  Lord  shall  rise  upon  thee,  and  His 
glory  shall  be  seen  iifon  thee.''''  God  was  to  come 
to  them  with  His  light,  and  they  were  to  know  it, 
and  to  have  share  in  it  through  a  blessed  inward 
experience;  and  it  was  all  to  be  so  clear  and  con- 
spicuous that  others  could  not  help  witnessing  it. 
"And  His  glory  shall  be  seen  upon  thee.'''' 

It  is  a  firm  conviction  of  mine  that  God's  people 
are  never  without  these  signs  and  tokens  of  His 
gracious  will.  If  it  is  not  always  made  evident 
to  the  world,  it  is  made  evident  to  them  and 
they  know  it  by  a  thousand  unmistakable  indica- 
tions, that  in  inducing  them  to  accept  His  love  and 
come  into  His  fellowship  and  service,  He  means  for 
them  a  clean,  unworldlj^  life.     One  cannot  love    the 


162  A  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  THEM 

things  God  loves,  and  walk  in  His  ways,  without  in- 
ward propulsion  in  this  direction. 

When  men,  therefore,  insist  sharply  on  purity,  on 
unvvorldliness,on  a  clear  and  unmistakable  unlikeness 
on  the  part  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus  to  those  who  care 
nothing  for  His  message  and  His  character,  and  on 
avoiding  the  very  appearance  of  evil,  they  aie  in  the 
exact  line  of  God's  thought.  When  men  go  to  the 
bottom,  and  call  things  by  their  right  names,  and 
deal  unsparingly  with  iniquit}?  and  pet  sins  and  hol- 
low pretense  of  piety  and  limp  acquiescences  in 
schemes  in  which  "good  Lord"  and  "good  devil" 
are  mingled  in  about  equal  proportions,  even  though 
it  be  done  in  language  which  would  put  to  flight  the 
rules  of  Lindley  Murray,  and  shock  a  modern  draw- 
ing-room, they  are  still  in  the  line  of  the  apostolic 
succession,  and  their  rebukes  of  the  shortcomings 
and  the  transgressions  and  the  shameless  profligacies 
of  those  who  pretend  to  be  the  children  of  God  here 
upon  the  earth  and  heirs  of  the  everlasting  inherit- 
ance, awake  —  so  we  feel  sure  —  echoes  of  approval 
in  all  the  heavenly  hosts.  When  there  is  no  more 
sinning  in  the  church,  and  there  is  no  more  ugly 
compromising  of  Christian  character,  and  men  who 
have  named  the  name  of  Christ  are  strict  to  depart 
from  iniquity,  and  the  things  of  time  and  sense  have 
lost  their  consuming  fascination  for  those  who  con- 
fess themselves  to  be  pilgrims  and  strangers  in  the 
earth,  rebukes  will  be  out  of  order,  and  we  may  in- 
sist on  the  prophesying  of  smooth  things.  But  that 
time  is  not  yet. 


A  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  THEM  163 

The  second  thought  on  which  stress  is  laid  is 
that  as  God  emphasizes  the  difference  which  exists 
in  theory  and  which  ought  to  exist  in  practice  be- 
tween His  own  people  and  the  people  of  the  world, 
and  is  all  the  time  trjnng  to  make  this  difference  just 
as  wide  as  possible  by  getting  His  people  into  an 
ever  increasing  nearness  and  likeness  to  Him,  so  it 
should  be  the  distinct  endeavor  of  all  who  claim  to 
be  walking  by  faith  and  not  by  sight,  and  who  ex- 
pect to  find  the  enduring  satisfactions  and  rewards  of 
life  not  here  in  this  shadow-realm,  but  yonder  in  the 
city  which  hath  foundations,  to  co-work  with  God, 
and  press  forward  into  a  separateness  from  sinners 
which  shall  be  pronounced  and  unmistakable. 

It  goes  without  sa3dng,  of  course,  that  the  sugges- 
tion here  urged  looks  to  something  quite  other  than  a 
mere  Pharisaic  formalism  and  scrupulousness.  A 
man  who  is  unlike  other  men  only  in  the  boastful 
tone  of  his  prayers  and  in  the  breadth  of  his  phylac- 
teries and  in  his  observance  of  the  letter  which  kill- 
eth  and  in  the  thought  of  his  own  surpassing  piety, 
better  not  be  so  much  unlike  them.  The  conceit  of 
holiness  is  one  of  the  worst  forms  of  unholiness. 

But  the  difference  which  is  emphasized  by  the  fact 
that  one  sincerely  loves  God  and  delights  in  commun- 
ion with  Him  ;  that  one  has  the  reverent  fear  through 
which  the  secret  of  the  Lord  is  whispered  to  the  soul ; 
that  one  finds  light  and  joy  in  the  Word  and  in  the 
observance  of  the  Sabbath  and  in  the  great  congre- 
gation gathered  for  service  in  the  house  of  worship 


164  y}  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  THEM 

and  in  the  fellowship  of  the  "two  or  three"  who 
come  together  in  the  Lord's  name  to  talk  with  Him 
and  with  each  other  about  the  things  of  soul;  that 
one  will  not  lie,  nor  cheat,  nor  steal,  nor  meanly 
equivocate,  nor  slander,  nor  shirk;  that  one  will  not 
permit  associations,  nor  fall  into  courses  of  con- 
duct, nor  take  up  any  forms  of  self-indulgence  and 
self-gratification  and  self-seeking,  whose  tendencies 
are  to  arrest  his  own  spiritual  development  and  to 
hinder  the  growth  of  the  kingdom  which  is  not  meat 
and  drink,  but  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in 
the  Holy  Ghost;  that  one  is  disposed  to  be  helpful 
according  to  the  utmost  measure  of  ability  in  supply- 
ing needs,  in  drying  tears,  in  soothing  sorrows,  in 
restoring  the  waj^ward  and  sinful,  and  bringing  all 
humanity  into  loving  accord  with  the  Divine  Father 
—  of  this  difference  let  us  have  more  and  more  till 
the  reign  of  righteousness  is  universal,  and  the  king- 
doms of  the  earth  have  become  the  kingdoms  of  our 
Lord  and  His  Christ.  If  only  the  difference  which 
ought  to  exist  along  these  lines  could  be  actualized 
here  in  Chicago,  the  mighty  power  of  the  church 
would  be  felt  once  more  as  in  the  old  Pentecostal 
times,  and  the  whole  face  of  things  would  be  changed 
in  a  month. 

It  were  a  happy  thing  were  the  moral  standards 
of  the  world  so  far  advanced  as  to  obviate  the  neces- 
sity of  any  wide  difference  between  believers  and  un- 
believers. Unfortunately  this  is  not  the  case.  In 
many    particulars    there   has  been   marked  progress. 


A  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  THEM  165 

In  many  particulars  the  outlook  is  full  of  encourage- 
ment. But  the  world  is  still  the  world,  and  flesh 
and  devil  are  still  flesh  and  devil.  It  ought,  there- 
fore, to  startle  a  man  who  is  nominally  a  Christian 
man,  as  though  there  were  in  it  a  fore-gleam  of  the 
judgment,  to  discover  that  there  is  no  sharp  line  run- 
ning through  and  marking  off  his  life,  in  the  inner 
thought  and  spirit  of  it,  in  the  general  tone  and  con- 
duct of  it  and  in  the  sweep  of  its  influences,  from 
the  lives  of  those  who  have  never  made  any  effort 
to  come  into  conscious  affiliation  with  God.  If  a  man 
has  no  more  faith  than  those  who  frankly  admit  that 
they  are  faithless;  no  more  love;  no  more  conse- 
cration; no  more  identification  with  the  great  and 
pressing  enterprises  of  the  church, — on  what  ground 
shall  he  make  it  appear  to  himself  that  he  is  a  child 
of  God?  No  man  ought  to  be  content  with  minimum 
attainments  —  with  attainments,  that  is,  which  will 
just  barely  put  him  on  the  side  of  the  people  of  the 
Lord;  but  he  ought  to  push  for  the  highest  acqui- 
sitions of  knowledge  and  grace  and  spiritual  force. 
"If  so  be  that  I  may  apprehend  that  for  which  also 
1  was  apprehended  by  Christ  Jesus"  was  the  noble 
aspiration  of  the  great  Apostle. 

When  believers  have  apprehended  that  for  which 
they  have  been  apprehended  by  their  Divine  Lord, 
there  will  be  no  longer  any  difficulty  in  distinguish- 
ing between  them  and  unbelievers.  It  will  be  in  their 
speech;  it  will  be  in  their  plans;  it  will  be  in  the 
prevailing  temper  of  their  minds;  it  will  be  in  the  at- 


166  A  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  THEM 

rnosphere  of  their  homes  and  stores  and  mills  and 
shops;  it  will  be  in  the  attitudes  they  will  assume 
face  to  face  with  disappointment  and  under  afflic- 
tions. Every  day's  experience  will  seem  to  make 
this  difference  more  marked  and  manifest.  Others 
beholding  them  will  say:  ''These  are  men  whose 
hands  are  clean ;  whose  faces  burn  with  light  from 
the  face  of  God ;  who  walk  in  faith ;  who  are  rooted 
and  grounded  in  love;  who  are  strengthened  with 
might  by  the  Spirit  in  the  inner  man,  and  who  aspire 
to  be  filled  with  all  the  fullness  of  God." 

There  is  a  suggestive  and  pertinent  passage  in  the 
Epistle  of  Paul  to  Titus,  and  with  that  these  words 
may  fitly  close:  I^or  the  grace  of  God  hath  ap- 
peared ^  bringing  salvation  unto  all  men,  instructing 
us  to  the  intent  that,  denying  ungodliness  and  worldly 
lusts,  we  should  live  soberly  and  righteously  and 
godly  in  this  f  resent  world;  looking  Jor  the  blessed 
hope  and  appearing  oj  the  glory  o/  our  great  God 
and  Saviour  yesus  Chr-ist,  who  gave  himself  for  us, 
that  He  might  redeem  us  from  all  iniquity,  and  puri- 
fy unto  Himself  a  people  for  his  own  possession, zeal- 
ous of  good  works. 


THE  RECEPTIVE  MIND. 

For  indeed  we  have  had  good  tidings  preached  unio  us,  even 
as  also  they  have;  but  the  ivord  of  hearing  did  not 
profit  them,  because  they  were  not  united  by  faith  luith 
them  that  heard.      Heb .  4:  2. 

RusKiNhas  said  that  no  man  is  competent  to  judge 
of  the  merits  of  a  picture  who  looks  only  at  its  faults. 
The  thought  contained  in  the  statement  is  capable 
of  infinite  applications.  No  man  is  in  a  mood  to  re- 
ceive good  from  a  truth,  no  matter  of  what  sort  nor 
in  what  form  presented,  whose  mind  is  filled  with 
prejudices  against  it,  or  who  is  even  indifferent  to  its 
alleged  claims.  Ideas,  like  guests,  to  be  most  com- 
panionable and  to  yield  best  results,  must  be  met 
with  generous  hospitality. 

In  line  with  this  thought  our  present  theme  is  to 
be:      The  Receptive  Mind. 

This  was  the  difficulty  in  the  instance  under  re- 
view. There  was  a  lack  of  the  receptive  mind. 
There  was  no  openness  to  divine  disclosures ;  no  eager 
and  responsive  interest  in  facts  declared;  no  hearty 
sympathy  with  promises  made.  On  the  contrary, all 
the  avenues  of  spiritual  approach  were  practically 
sealed  against  God.  There  was  the  light;  but  the 
eye  was  shut.  There  was  the  voice,  calling,  ready 
to  guide,  ready  to  comfort,  full  of  all  sweetness;  but 
the  ear  was  stopped.     There  was  the  rest,  promised, 

167 


168  THE  RECEPTIVE  MIND 

assured;  but  there  was  no  heart  for  it  and  no  genu- 
ine belief  in  its  reality  and  value.  There  was  an 
evil  heart  of  unbelief  through  which  they  were  led 
to  depart  from  the  living  God,  and  to  put  all  the 
tender,wise  words  He  addressed  to  them,  and  all  the 
helpful  influences  He  poured  in  upon  their  lives,  de- 
liberately behind  them. 

The  point  pressed  by  the  inspired  writer  is  that 
this  very  grave  and  fatal  mistake  may  be  repeated. 
"Take  heed,  brethren,  lest  haply  there  shall  be  in 
any  one  of  you  an  evil  heart  of  unbelief  .  .  .  for 
we  are  become  partakers  of  Christ,  if  we  hold  fast 
the  beginning  of  our  confidence,  firm  unto  the  end." 
It  was  because  they  believed  not  that  God  was  grieved 
with  the  children  of  Israel;  and  it  was  because 
they  believed  not  that  they  were  not  permitted  to 
enter  into  the  rest  of  the  Promised  Land.  A  rest 
was  promised  ;  but  it  was  of  no  advantage  to  them,  — 
so  far  as  thej^  were  concerned  might  just  as  well  not 
have  been  promised  —  because  it  was  not  met  with  a 
response  of  faith.  This  is  the  secret  of  the  failure. 
There  was  no  temper  of  receptivity,  — no  downright 
and  sincere  eagerness  to  know  if  the  things  declared 
were  true  or  not,  — nothing  but  hard,  repellent  unbe- 
lief for  God's  promises  to  strike  against. 

This  is  where  we  are  to  have  a  care.  The  old 
peril  is  the  new  peril.  In  every  generation  men  are 
falling  after  the  same  example  of  unbelief.  The  for- 
giveness awaits;  the  promises  abide;  the  invitation, 
tender,  urgent,  still  is  —  "come;"  and  help  and  guid- 


THE  RECEPTIVE  MIND  169 

anceand  abundant  rewards  are  assured;  but  through 
lack  of  the  receptive  mind  multitudes  miss  entering 
in  and  enjoying  What  God  has  in  store  for  them. 

Now  this  unbelief,  or  lack  of  faith,  which  the 
author  of  our  text  deprecates  and  rebukes,  takes 
three  practical  forms,  each  of  which  is  likely  to  be 
fatal. 

I.  //  takes  the  form  of  stiidied  indifference  to  all 
religions  truths  and  claims. 

Men  affirm  that  they  have  no  interest  in  these 
questions.  It  is  not  merely  that  they  are  preoccupied 
with  other  things,  —  with  studies  which  engross  their 
minds,  with  business  matters,  with  pleasures,  with 
politics  and  what  not;  but  they  feel  no  drawings,  so 
they  tell  us,  and  no  stress  of  necessity  to  grapple  with 
spiritual  problems.  When  pressed  they  refuse  to  ad- 
mit any  obligation  to  meet  the  issue  of  God  and  their 
own  souls.  Anything  else  whose  advocates  should 
claim  for  it  commanding  importance,  they  would  con- 
sider and  investigate  according  to  ability ;  but  not  re- 
ligion. Many  of  these  people  pride  themselves  on 
their  fairness  and  candor.  They  are  conscientious  in 
weighing  both  sides  of  matters  submitted  to  them 
until  it  comes  to  Christianity, and  then  they  bar  the 
doors,  and,  on  the  ground  that  they  care  for  none  of 
these  things,  decline  to  give  those  who  would  persuade 
them  into  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God  an  open 
chance  to  do  their  work. 

Hut  is  this  a  sound  position?  Has  any  man  a  moral 
right  to  be  indifferent  to  the  truths  and  claims  of  the 


170  THE  RECEPTIVE  MIND 

Christian  religion?    Can  a  man  pass  by  on  the  other 
side  of  Jesus  and  be  guihless? 

Bear  these  two  or  three  things  in  mind.  Religion 
goes  to  the  heart  of  our  personality,  and  has  to  do 
with  our  inmost  being.  It  concerns  origin  and  des- 
tiny, whence  we  came  and  whither  we  go.  In  the 
finest  conception  and  in  the  utmost  reaches  of  them, 
it  concerns  life  and  law  and  dut3^  All  the  momen- 
tous questions  of  the  here  and  the  hereafter  are  wrap- 
ped up  in  the  folds  of  religion.  To  blot  stars  out  of 
the  firmament  would  not  be  of  so  much  consequence  as 
to  blot  thought  of  religion  out  of  the  sky  of  the  soul. 
No  man  has  been  true  to  himself,  and  met  properly 
the  grave  responsibilities  which  rest  upon  him  in 
virtue  of  his  rational  existence,  until  he  has  come 
to  some  sort  of  thorough  and  honest  conclusion  about 
God.  True  or  false,  this  is  what  religion  is  —  one 
of  the  most  potent  factors  in  the  shaping  of  laws  and 
customs  and  in  the  development  of  civilization. 
May  a  man  be  indifferent  to  it? 

A  man  may  say  if  he  will,  that  he  is  not  interested 
in  historical  researches;  in  explorations,  Egyptian, 
Babylonian,  African,  Asiatic;  in  inventions  like 
those  of  Bessemer  and  Bell  and  Edison;  in  the  plat- 
forms of  parties  and  the  rivalries  and  conquests  of  rul- 
ing dynasties  ^  in  the  details  of  scientific  investigations ; 
in  social  questions  and  reforms  —  though  it  is  hard  to 
see  how  one  can  be  a  man  and  hold  his  place  in  an 
active,  progressive  community,  and  not  have  his 
thoughts  and  sympathies  drawn  out  in  some  of  these 


THE  RECEPTIVE  MIND  ,         171 

directions;  but  to  say  that  the  things  which  touch 
the  soul  in  its  inmost  core  and  in  its  highest  relations 
are  of  no  concern  to  him  —  that  he  puts  them  by  as 
he  would  the  idle  wind  —  would  seem  to  be  a  kind  of 
abdication  of  the  supreme  and  most  sacred  functions 
of  the  rational  faculties. 

As  has  just  been  intimated,  these  questions  of  re- 
ligion come  to  one  in  the  very  structure  of  his  soul. 
They  are  interwoven  with  all  the  facts  and  orders 
and  methods  of  nature.  The  man  of  science  may 
,  say:  "I  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  theories  and 
problems  of  theology;  I  will  study  astronomy,  and 
stop  there;  or  geology,  and  stop  there;  or  botany, 
and  stop  there;  or  anatomy,  and  stop  there;  or 
metaphysics,  and  stop  there;"  but  no,  he  cannot 
stop  there.  Every  atom  is  more  than  an  atom ;  it  is 
a  question.  Every  lily  is  more  than  a  lil}';  it  is  a 
question.  Every  star  is  more  than  a  star;  it  is  a 
question.  Every  instinct  is  more  than  an  instinct;  it 
is  a  question.  Every  thought  is  more  than  a  thought; 
it  is  a  question.  Heaven  and  earth  and  all  life  are 
punctuated  with  interrogation  points.  The  suggestion 
of  God  is  everywhere  forced  upon  us.  We  may  stop 
our  ears  and  refuse  to  listen;  but  from  realms  unseen 
the  question  will  keep  coming.  Every  bush  is  aflame 
with  challenges  to  stop  and  think  what  we  are  and 
where  we  are  and  what  our  duty  and  destiny. 

II.  This  unbelief,  or  lack  of  faith,  takes  the  fur- 
ther form  of  -positive  opposition  to  religious  truths 
and  claims. 


172  THE  RECEPTIVE  MIND 

It  becomes  belligerent  and  noisy.  It  lifts  up  its 
voice  in  the  streets.  It  mounts  platforms.  It  writes 
books.  It  edits  newspapers.  It  founds  magazines. 
It  circulates  tracts.  It  organizes  societies.  It  seeks 
and  makes  proselytes  of  all  whom  it  can  influence. 
If  it  finds  men  bending  down  before  the  Most 
High  in  the  reverent  attitude  of  prayer,  it  tries,  some- 
times by  argument  and  sometimes  by  ridicule,  to 
divert  their  minds  and  draw  them  away  from  the 
sacred  and  blessed  service.  If  it  encounters  men 
who  are  clear  and  strong  in  their  conviction  of  the 
immortality  of  the  soul  and  the  fatherhood  of  God 
and  the  saving  power  of  Christ  and  the  blessedness 
of  believers  in  the  world  to  come,  with  a  cunning  and 
malignity  which  it  would  seem  harsh  fitly  to  charac- 
terize, it  undertakes  to  sift  their  minds  full  of  the 
fine  dust  of  doubt,  and  to  choke  the  inlets  of  divine 
light,  and  to  arrest  the  flow  of  sweet  spiritual  joy  in 
their  lives.  It  is  never  so  jubilant, — this  positive, 
aggressive  unbelief, as  when  it  can  succeed  in  silenc- 
ing some  preacher's  voice,  or  perchance  transferring 
some  erratic  minister  from  what  he  is  pleased  to  call 
the  cramped  arena  of  the  pulpit  to  the  broader  do- 
main of  the  boards  of  a  theater. 

Proceeding  under  the  guise  of  benevolence,  it 
claims  that  to  rob  men  of  their  faith  in  God  is  to 
enrich  humanity.  It  mocks  and  deplores  Sabbath- 
schools  and  all  kinds  of  schools  for  Bible-instruc- 
tion, because  these  schools  fill  the  minds  of  the  young 
with  preconceived  ideas  of    God,  and  so   give    them 


THE  RECEPTIVE  MhVD  173 

notions  of  faith  and  love  and   purity  and   duty    hard 
to  eradicate. 

This  form  of  unbelief  does  its  best  to  seal  all  eyes 
against  heavenly  visions,  to  close  all  ears  against 
still  small  voices,  to  render  spiritual  nerves  insensible 
to  the  healing  and  guiding  touch  of  the  Divine  hand, 
and  to  reduce  the  race  to  a  condition  of  hopeless 
orphanage. 

Every  name  of  weight  which  stands  for  opposition 
to  Christianity;  every  apparent  difficulty  and  incon- 
sistency in  revelation ;  every  folly  and  wickedness 
committed  by  men  inside  the  church  and  under  the 
name  of  religion;  every  seeming  cross-purpose  dis- 
coverable in  the  working  out  of  the  ends  of  God  in 
providence;  everything  hard  to  be  understood  and 
hard  to  be  reconciled  with  unerring  wisdom  and  in- 
finite love,  is  called  up;  and  then  all  these  are  set  in 
array  together,  and  the  question  is  asked,  sometimes 
in  a  half  pitiful  tone,  sometimes  in  a  sneering  tone, 
but  always  in  a  tone  to  imply  that  only  one  answer 
can  be  given  in  face  of  such  facts  and  so  many  of  them, 
whether  men  of  intelligence  and  breadth  of  view  and 
courage  of  conviction  are  to  be  expected  to  hold  fast 
the  old  faith  in  the  supernatural,  and  to  live  and 
die  in  the  confidence  that  there  is  a  personal  God,  a 
Divine  Father  and  Helper,  who  is  not  far  from  each 
one  of  us. 

There  are  men  who  disbelieve,  who  are  yet  quiet 
in  their  unbelief.  They  are  honest  doubters,  and  it 
pains  them  that  they  cannot  see  their  way  cleaily  in 


174  THE  RECEPTIVE  MIND 

these  matters  of  the  soul  and  God.  But  the  unbe- 
lievers now  in  mind  are  active,  determined.  Like 
Saul  of  Tarsus,  they  are  exceeding  mad  against  the 
faith  and  all  who  hold  it.  They  stick  at  nothing 
which  has  promise  in  it  of  overturning  the  trust  of 
disciples  in  their  Lord.  They  shut  God  out  from 
their  own  souls,  and  they  do  the  best  they  can  to 
shut  Him  out  of  all  souls. 

in.  This  unhelief,  or  lack  of  faith,  has  its  ex- 
■planation  and  takes  form  also  in  courses  of  conduct 
which  are  in  direct  contravention  of  the  truths  and 
claims  of  religion,  and  which  make  the  approaches 
of  light  both  difficult  and  unwelcome. 

It  is  the  unbelief  of  bad  action.  It  is  the  dissent 
of  dishonesty  and  immorality  and  a  low,  gross  earthi- 
ness.  It  is  the  opposition  of  unworthy  character. 
It  is  the  attitude  men  take  when  they  permit  them- 
selves to  be  dominated  by  their  passions  and  their 
appetites  and  their  mean  greeds,  rather  than  by  rea- 
son and  conscience  and  a  will  which  is  loyal  to  virtue. 
They  refuse  to  believe  God,  — refuse,  indeed,  to  be- 
lieve there  is  any  God,  because  such  belief  would 
seriously  interfere  with  their  malicious  designs  or 
the  pleasure  they  find  in  their  sensual  indulgences. 
Faith  in  God  would  obstruct  and  disturb  them  in 
their  evil  ways. 

This  is  exactly  as  the  Psalmist  sets  it  forth:  "The 
transgression  of  the  wicked  saith  within  m}^  heart 
that  there  is  no  fear  of  God  before  his  eyes."  He 
has  put  God  and    the    fear  of    God    away    from    his 


THE  RECEPriVE  iVLVD  175 

thought  because  with  God  and  the  fear  of  God  in 
mind  he  cannot  go  on  with  his  wickedness.  It  is  so 
with  all  evil-doers.  God  wants  purity ;  they  prefer 
to  be  impure.  God  wants  veracity;  they  stick  at  no 
lies.  God  wants  unselfishness,  generosity,  a  spirit 
of  helpfulness  to  run  from  man  to  man  and  bless  the 
world;  they  are  hard,  oppressive,  extortionate,  so 
that  the  faces  of  the  poor  grow  thinner  and  thinner 
under  their  cruel  grinding;  —  or  they  are  gluttons 
and  wine-bibbers  and  revolting  sensualists.  God 
wants  acknowledgment,  reverence,  obedience,  love; 
they  turn  away  from  Him  and  His  demands  as  though 
He  were  an  obtrusive  and  impertinent  beggar,  asking 
for  that  to  which  He  has  no  right. 

Now  is  it  not  evident  that  unbelief,  taking  either 
of  these  forms,  must  necessarily  obstruct  the  inflow 
of  God's  blessing  on  the  soul?  "He  that  cometh  to 
God  must  believe  that  He  is,  and  that  He  is  a  re- 
warder  of  them  who  diligently  seek  Him."  So,  too, 
he  to  whom  God  comes  must  believe  that  He  is,  and 
that  His  presence  in  love  is  the  supreme  benediction. 

If,  to  retrace  our  steps  a  little,  men  are  indiffer- 
ent to  God,  refuse  to  think  about  Him,  refuse  to 
consider  the  ground  on  which  He  makes  His  appeals 
to  their  reason  and  conscience,  but  persistentl}'  pre- 
occupy and  fill  their  minds  with  other  things,  how 
can  they  be  helped?  Flood  a  room  with  light,  hang 
all  its  walls  with  rarest  pictures  —  but  if  men  will  not 
open  their  eyes  to  them  —  say  they  care  nothing  about 
them  —  what  good  will  it  do?     Raphael  and  Rem- 


176  THE  RECEPTIVE  MIND 

brandt  and  Titian  and  Reynolds  might  as  well  never 
have  painted.  Fill  the  air  with  music  of  quiring 
angels;  pour  out  instruction,  volume  on  volume,  hot 
and  luminous  as  eloquent  lips  can  make  it;  and  yet  if 
men  will  not  take  pains  to  listen,  say  they  have  no 
interest  in  listening,  and  in  this  temper  turn  their 
ears  away  to  be  filled  with  other  sounds,  how  are 
they  to  be  edified  by  it  all?  There  might  as  well 
have  been  no  Handel  or  Mozart  to  sing  and  no  De- 
mosthenes or  Wendell  Phillips  to  speak.  There  must 
be  open-mindedness  as  opposed  to  indifference. 

If  men  go  further,  and  become  out-and-out  ob- 
structionists, fighters  against  God  and  faith  in  God, 
do  they  not  violate  all  the  conditions  on  which  light 
might  be  expected  to  find  its  way  into  their  souls? 
Do  they  not  violate  all  the  conditions,  indeed,  on 
which  light  ever  does  find  its  way  into  the  soul? 
Drawing  near  to  God  brings  God  near  to  us.  Draw- 
ing outward  from  God  widens  the  space,  always  too 
wide,  alas!  between  Him  and  us. 

Doubt,  as  has  already  been  implied,  is  not  alto- 
gether abnormal,  still  less  altogether  criminal.  There 
is  much  doubt  that  is  genuine  and  sincere,  and  even 
praiseworthy.  Employed  as  a  spur  to  honest  inves- 
tigation, doubt  is  good.  Treated  as  the  tools  with 
which  to  plow  and  harrow  and  cultivate  the  soil,  and 
not  as  the  crop  which  is  the  final  outcome  of  all  the 
labor,  doubt  maj-  be  fruitful  of  rich  spiritual  harvests. 
But  doubt  petted,  doubt  made  a  ground  of  pride  as 
though  it  were  proof  of  superior  intellectual  keenness 


THE  RECEPTIVE  MIND  177 

and  breadth,  doubt  nourished  and  developed  until  it 
cloudij  all  the  sky  where  the  stars  of  hope  shine,  and 
Go4  comes  no  longer  within  the  horizon  of  the  soul's 
vision,  and  one  is  tempted  to  exclaim  with  the  fool, 
"There  is  no  God,"  —  is  a  sore  calamity.  This  kind 
of  doubt  is  more  than  likely  to  become  conceited, ob- 
trusive, oflensive,  and  to  end  in  a  spiritual  mood 
which  it  does  no  violence  to  language  to  call  "enmity 
against  God." 

Enmity,  it  is  easy  to  see,  draws  the  curtain  against 
light.  Enmity  fills  the  soul  with  prejudice,  and  arms 
it  with  weapons  of  opposition.  To  continue  in  a 
mood  of  enmity  against  God  and  His  truth  and  His 
law  and  His  institutions,  disloyal,  oppugnant,  is  to 
put  out  of  the  question  all  chances  of  receiving  good 
from  His  Gospel,  or  from  the  influences  He  lavishes 
upon  us,  and  with  which  He  seeks  to  restrain  and 
guide  us. 

If  men,  again,  are  intent  on  iniquit}'  —  steeped  in 
corruption  —  and  are  unwilling  to  break  off  their  sins 
by  righteousness,  simply  hearing  the  word  will  bring 
no  blessing  to  them.  They  hear;  but  they  go  right 
on.  They  see;  but  they  pause  not,  and  sin  is  still 
rolled  as  a  sweet  morsel  under  their  tongues.  There 
is  light  for  them;  but  they  love  darkness  rather  than 
light,  because  their  deeds  are  evil.  There  is  a  shining 
way  open  to  their  feet;  but  they  go  plunging  down 
from  depth  to  depth  —  from  deep  to  deeper  deep  —  in 
a  night  of  ever  thickening  gloom.  Salvation  may  be 
pressed    upon    them ;  they  prefer  to  remain    without 


178  THE  RECEPTIVE  MIND 

hope  and  without  God  in  the  world.  Heaven  with 
all  its  wealth  of  glory  may  be  laid  before  them;  they 
choose  rather  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  sin  for  a  sea- 
son. Their  knowledge,  their  opportunities  do  not 
profit  them,  because  their  hearts  and  their  lives  are 
full  of  evil  deeds. 

What  then  is  wanted? 

In  general,  an  open,  receptive  mind;  a  mind,  that 
is,  which  discards  all  prejudices,  and  welcomes  truth 
under  whatever  garb  and  wherever  found,  just  as 
the  earth  welcomes  the  dawning  of  the  day. 

Specifically  these  three  things: 

I.  The  same  gracious  candor  in  considering  re- 
ligious truths  and  claims  one  carries^  and  ought  to 
carry ^  into  the  consideration  of  the  facts  and  laws 
and  methods  of  science. 

Why  not?  If  a  man  is  to  derive  any  good  from  the 
study  of  Aristotle  or  Darwin  or  Huxley  or  Spen- 
cer or  Lubbock  or  Agassiz,  he  must  approach  his 
author  in  the  spirit  of  docility  which  consents  to  be- 
lieve there  may  be  some  justification  for  the  infer- 
ences he  draws  and  the  system  he  builds  up.  The 
man  who  says  of  Plato  there  is  nothing  in  him  and 
he  is  not  worth  reading,  will  be  likely  to  find  nothing 
in  him. 

What  is  asked,  and  all  that  is  asked  now,  is  that 
a  man  will  read  the  Word  of  God  in  the  same  gener- 
ous temper  in  which  he  wishes  others  to  read  the 
"Origin  of  Species"  or  "Pre-Historic  Man."  Is  this 
done?     Do  men,  and   especially  a  certain   class  of 


THE  RECEPTIVE  MIND  179 

men,  canvass  religious  questions  and  weigh  the  argu- 
ments for  the  existence  of  a  divine  being  —  personal 
and  supreme  —  and  for  the  spirituality  and  immor- 
tality of  the  soul  and  for  the  sonship  and  saving  pov^'er 
of  Jesus  Christ  and  for  all  the  truths  of  the  Christian 
Faith  just  as  carefully  and  honestlj^  as  thej'  expect, 
and  have  a  right  to  expect  others  to  go  over  the  ground 
of  "Evolution"  or  "The  Correlation  of  Forces*' 
or  "Social  Ethics"?  Is  it  not  true  that  thousands  and 
thousands  of  intelligent  people  set  religion  aside  with- 
out ever  devoting  a  single  day  to  the  earnest  consid- 
eration of  the  subject?  They  yield  to  prejudice  and 
dismiss  it  without  examination. 

2.  There  is  wanted  the  admission  0/  the  presump- 
tion that  religious  truths  have  not  been  held,  and 
religious  claims  acknozvledged,  by  so  many  men 
throughout  the  ages  without  some  basis  in  reason. 

It  is  asserted  that  there  has  been  great  progress  in 
the  world  since  the  beginning  of  things, and  partic- 
ularly during  these  latest  years. 

This  is  true.  We  travel  with  more  facility.  One 
may  lunch  on  Thursday  at  Queenstown,  and  on  the 
next  Thursday  be  dining  at  home  with  his  family  in 
Chicago.  We  fight  with  more  deadly  weapons. 
What  would  Macedonian  phalanxes  under  Alexan- 
der or  Valley  Forge  patriots  under  Washington 
have  been  able  to  do  with  Krupp  guns?  We  can  send 
and  receive  tidings  quicker.  It  takes  the  laggard  hands 
on  the  dial  of  an  Illinois  clock  six  hours  to  catch 
up  with  the  date  of  the    news    already  before  us  that 


180  THE  RECEPTIVE  MIND 

the  Duke  of  Clarence  or  Manning  or  Spurgeon  is 
dead.  We  have  vastly  better  machinery  for  sowing 
and  reaping.  No  doubt  even  the  faithful  Ruth  would 
have  stopped  her  gleaning  in  sheer  wonder  had  she 
seen  a  McCormick  reaper  suddenly  descend  and  go 
moving  back  and  forth  in  the  field  of  Boaz.  We  spin 
and  weave  with  a  speed  and  ingenuity  never  dreamed 
of  even  so  late  as  a  hundred  years  ago.  Imagine 
Penelope,  the  faithful  spouse  of  the  wandering  Ulys- 
ses, or  Priscilla,  the  sweet  Puritan  maiden  who  did 
not  marry  Captain  Miles  Standish,  standing  in  pres- 
ence of  a  Nottingham  lace-machine,  or  an  Axmin- 
ster  loom !  We  live  in  more  comfortable  homes.  We 
have  books  and  magazines  and  newspapers  till  they 
are  an  incumbrance.  The  improvements  along  ma- 
terial lines  and  the  wider  grasp  on  many  of  the  facts 
of  nature  which  characterize  our  day  cannot  be 
questioned.  The  advance,  too,  has  been  for  the  most 
part  beneficent.  The  masses  have  shared  in  the  im- 
mense benefits  of  this  advance,  and  life  means  more 
and  is  more  to  the  millions  than  it  otherwise  could 
have  been. 

But  how  about  the  human  faculties  themselves? 
How  about  the  senses,  the  reason,  the  conscience? 
Has  the  capacity  to  see  and  to  know  and  to  under- 
stand made  such  forward  strides  that  the  keenest  and 
profoundest  intellects  of  the  olden  times  were  as  puny 
children  in  comparison  with  what  the  keenest  and 
profoundest  intellects  have  come  to  be  now? 

Take  it  in  the  sphere  of  moral  duties  and  moial  ob- 


THE  RECEPTIVE  MIND  181 

ligations.  Have  we  risen  to  anything  better  than 
Moses  knew  and  experienced  in  the  Ten  Command- 
ments? Were  men  to  keep  these  Commandments, 
as  our  Lord  interpreted  them,  God  would  get  His 
due,  and  not  a  human  being  in  all  the  earth  would 
ever  again  be  wronged. 

Take  it  in  the  sphere  of  pure  thought.  Has  the 
genius  of  man  ever  produced  anything  grander  than 
the  book  of  Job?  Turn  to  Carlyle  in  his  "  Hero- Wor- 
ship," and  see  what  he  thinks  of  it.  "I  call  that," 
so  he  says,  "apart  from  all  theories  about  it,  one  of 
the  grandest  things  ever  written  with  pen.  .  . 
A  noble  book;  all  men's  book.  It  is  our  first,  oldest 
statement  of  the  never-ending  problem;  —  man's 
destiny  and  God's  ways  with  him  here  in  this  earth. 
And  all  in  such  free  flowing  outlines;  grand  in  its 
sincerity,  in  its  simplicity,  in  its  epic  melody  and 
repose  of  reconcilement.  So  trite  every  way;  true 
eyesight  and  vision  of  all  things;  material  things  no 
less  than  spiritual.  .  .  .  Such  living  likenesses 
were  never  since  drawn.  Sublime  sorrow,  sublime 
reconciliation,  oldest  choral  melody  as  of  the  heart 
of  mankind,  —  so  soft  and  great ;  as  the  summer  mid- 
night, as  the  world  with  its  seas  and  stars.  There  is 
nothing  written,  I  think,  in  the  Bible  or  out  of  it,  of 
equal  literary  merit." 

Take  it  in  the  sphere  of  the  analysis  of  heart  and 
life  and  of  solemn,  sincere  confession  as  in  the  judg- 
ment and  before  God.  Is  there  any  mate  to  the  Fifty- 
first  Psalm  ?  Does  the  "  Scarlet  Letter"  search  deeper, 


182  THE  RECEPTIVE  MIND 

and  probe  with  a  more  awful  instrument  of  contrition 
and  pain?  The  plummet  of  the  sounding  line  of 
David  goes  to  the  bottom  of  sorrow  for  sin  and  of 
sincere  repentance. 

Are  we  beyond  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount?  We 
have  Bacon;  we  have  Emerson;  we  have  Mill;  we 
have  Spencer;  we  have  Shakespeare  and  Goethe  and 
Milton  and  Wordsworth, — essa3nsts,  philosophers, 
scientists,  poets,  men  of  resplendent  abilities,  all  of 
them,  and  some  of  them  of  transcendent  genius;  but 
what  page  in  the  writings  of  any  one  of  these  would 
one  venture  to  match  against  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount?  In  my  judgment  it  will  require  a  good  deal 
of  first-class  evolution  to  get  us  bej^ond  the  heights 
on  vs'hich  Jesus  stood. 

Now  is  it  not  better  to  conclude  at  once  that  these 
men  —  even  though  they  lived  so  many  centuries 
ago  —  knew  whereof  they  spoke?  They  were  not 
the  victims  of  a  baseless  superstition  which  ought 
long  ago  to  have  perished  from  the  earth;  nor  of  a 
mere  narrow  system  of  thought  and  life  which  more 
light  would  be  sure  to  displace  and  supersede;  but 
the}'  had  reason  on  their  side;  and  they  were  able 
from  first  to  last  and  in  face  of  all  objections  to 
give  a  reason  for  the  faith  that  was  in  them.  Think- 
ing, reasoning,  weighing  matters,  looking  into  the 
heart  of  things  are  not  modern  inventions.  The 
men  who  have  been  saying  from  of  old  till  this  hour 
that  there  is  a  God,  and  the  heavens  declare  His 
glory,  and  the  firmament   showeth  His    handiwork, 


THE  RECEPTIVE  MIND  183 

and  man  is  His  witness,  have  not  been  fools.  Re- 
ligion is  entitled  to  the  presumption  of  reasonableness. 

3.  There  is  wanted  a  recognition  oj^  the  respon- 
sibility each  is  under  to  investigate  and  settle  Jor  him- 
self the  questions  of  his  relations  to  God  and  oj  his 
duty  toward  God. 

A  great  many  seem  to  think  all  they  have  to  do  in 
the  matter  is  simply  to  stand  still  and  wait,  like  an 
inert,  unintelligent  mass,  to  be  influenced  from  with- 
out. If  instruction  is  forced  upon  them  they  will  re- 
ceive it,  but  they  will  not  search  for  it  as  for  hid 
treasure.  If  constraint  is  brought  to  bear  on  them 
till  they  can  no  longer  resist  it,  they  will  yield;  but 
not  otherwise.  They  throw  the  responsibility  off 
on  God,  or  the  servants  of  God. 

The  result  is  that  there  are  multitudes  who  never 
gave  the  question  of  personal  religion  an  hour's  ear- 
nest and  serious  consideration  in  their  lives.  They 
never  read  the  Bible;  they  never  followed  one  by 
one  the  great  arguments  which  buttress  and  support 
our  Christianity;  they  never  sought  for  light  amongst 
the  intelligent  and  devout;  they  never  fell  on  their 
knees  in  prayer;  they  never  swung  wide  the  doors, 
and  walked  back  and  forth  in  the  halls  and  apart- 
ments of  their  own  souls,  with  a  view  to  ascertaining 
whether  their  relations  to  God  are  what  they  ought 
to  be,  and  whether  they  are  in  the  way  of  realizing 
the  true  end  of  their  being.  Their  attitude  is  that 
heaven  must  be  thrust  upon  them,  or  they  will  not 
have  it.     They  must  be  filled  with   knowledge  with- 


184  THE  RECEPTIVE  MI.VD 

out  effort.  They  must  be  convinced  against  their 
wills.  They  must  be  taken  up  bodily  and  set  over 
inside  of  salvation,  or  they  will  go  on  in  sin.  Jesus 
said  "seek  ye."  Jesus  said  "strive."  But  the  per- 
sons now  in  mind  neither  "seek"  nor  "strive;"  they 
just  wait,  and  drift,  and  let  the  days  go  by,  and  the 
years  go  by,  and  busy  themselves,  head  and  heart 
and  hand,  with  everything  save  the  one  supreme 
concern  of  God  and  what  they  owe  to  Him. 

But  is  this  manly?  Is  this  rational?  Is  this  deal- 
ing wisely  with  our  own  faculties  and  conditions  and 
aspirations?  Is  this  going  resolutely  to  the  bottom 
of  our  own  possible  needs  and  perils,  and  la3'ing  hold 
with  a  strong  hand  on  possible  privileges  which  are 
more  radiant  and  enduring  than  all  the  stars? 

Religion  is  the  binding  of  the  soul  to  God  in  faith 
and  love  and  loyalty.  It  is  not  a  myth.  It  is  not  a 
superstition.  It  is  not  an  empty  formular}^  It  is 
not  a  worn-out  tradition.  It  is  life  and  strength  and 
joy.  Concerning  any  man  his  religion  or  no-relig- 
ion is  the  most  significant  fact.  It  is  the  primary 
thing,  and  in  one  way  and  another  determines  every- 
thing else.  Let  a  man  be  indifferent,  if  he  will,  to 
his  material  on-getting,  and  to  his  personal  comfort 
and  name  and  fame  and  power;  but  on  no  consider- 
ation let  him  put  aside  or  ignore  the  truths  and  claims 
of  religion.  He  who  said  "I  am  the  wajs"  and  who 
over  and  over  again  uttered  the  sweet  word  "Come" 
in  such  accents  of  infinite  tenderness  that  it  has  been 
as  heavenly  music  to  forlorn  and  distressed  souls  ever 


THE  RECEPTIVE  MIND  185 

since,  also  said:  "Take  heed  how  ye  hear."  The 
most  momentous  of  all  issues  is  involved  in  the  simple 
fact  of  the  mind  closed  or  the  mind  open.  In  Christ's 
time,  as  was  the  case  before,  and  as  has  been  the 
case  since,  the  word  preached  failed  to  profit  because 
the  preaching  of  it  was  not  met  in  a  spirit  of  hospi- 
tality. 

Well  may  we  make  the  words  of  Isaiah  our  clos- 
ing entreaty:  "Incline  your  ear  and  come  unto  me; 
hear  and  your  soul  shall  live;  and  I  will  make  an 
everlasting  covenant  with  you,  even  the  sure  mercies 
of  David." 


BAD   MOTHERS. 

For  his  mother  was  his  counselor  to  do  wickedly.     2  Chron- 
icles 22:  J. 

It  is  not  a  pleasant  service,  but  one  for  which  there 
always  seems  to  be  occasion,  to  speak  on  the  theme 
of  '"'•  Bad  Mothers.''''  If  there  is  a  human  being  in  the 
world  who  is  more  to  be  pitied  than  any  one  else,  it  is 
a  child  with  a  bad  mother.  It  is  a  misfortune  inex- 
pressible to  have  a  bad  father  or  a  bad  wife  or  a 
bad  husband  or  a  bad  son  or  daughter;  but  to  have 
been  ushered  into  life  by  a  bad  mother,  and  to  be 
forced  to  submit  through  all  the  years  of  opening 
conscience  and  broadening  intelligence  to  the  mold- 
ing influence  of  a  bad  mother,  is  the  climax  of  un- 
toward circumstance.  One  may  rise  superior  even 
to  this  adversity,  but  it  takes  rare  gifts  and  a  large 
amount  of  moral  pluck  and  a  high  measure  of  the 
grace  of  God  to  enable  a  person  to  cut  loose  from  the 
vicious  training,  and  to  counter-work  and  overcome 
the  demoralizing  atmosphere  of  a  bad  mother.  Bad 
as  others  may  be,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  a  bad 
mother  stands  unrivaled  in  her  evil  eminence. 

In  the  story  of  Athaliah,  as  given  to  us  in  the  Old 
Testament  narrative  of  the  careers  of  the  reigning 
houses  of  Israel  and  Judah,  a  startling   illustration  is 

186 


BAD  MOTHERS  187 

furnished  of  a  bad  mother.  It  was  a  case,  indeed,  of 
a  bad  mother  succeeding  a  bad  mother,  and  of  hate 
and  cruelty  and  viciousness  and  corruption  all  around. 
For  Athaliah  was  the  daughter  of  Ahab  and  Jezebel. 
It  was  a  fatal  blood  to  have  in  one's  veins  —  that  of 
Jezebel. 

Jezebel  was  a  Phenician  princess.  The  royal  fam- 
ily of  Tyre  was  remarkable  at  that  time  for  its  relig- 
ious fanaticism  and  its  savage  temper.  Jezebel  was 
a  woman  who  concentrated  in  herself  the  reckless 
and  licentious  habits  of  an  oriental  queen  and  the 
sternest  and  fiercest  qualities  characteristic  of  her 
race.  Her  name  became  a  byword  in  the  nation,  as 
it  has  become  in  history;  and  in  the  estimation  of 
the  decent  and  good  all  down  through  the  centuries 
it  has  stood  for  all  that  was  mean  and  execrable. 

The  mother  Jezebel  reappeared  in  the  daughter 
Athaliah.  It  was  a  marked  and  sad  instance  of 
"like  mother  like  daughter."  The  wife  Jezebel  re- 
appeared still  again  in  the  wife  Athaliah;  and  what 
Jezebel  was  to  Ahab  in  urging  him  on  to  horrible  wrong 
and  blood,  Athaliah  was  to  Jehoram,  whom  she  had 
married.  For,  as  the  Scriptures  ingenuously  state  it, 
"He  walked  in  the  way  of  the  kings  of  Israel,  as  did 
the  house  of  Ahab;  for  he  had  the  daughter  of  Ahab 
to  wife;  and  he  did  that  which  was  evil  in  the  sight 
of  the  Lord."  Jezebel  having  reappeared  in  the 
daughter  Athaliah,  and  in  the  wife  Athaliah,  reap- 
peared also  in  the  mother  Athaliah.  Her  counsel, 
her  influence,  her  efforts  were  in  the  same  fatal   line 


1S8  BAD  MOrilERS 

of  disloyalty  to  God,  of  inhumanity  to  man,  of  mad 
and  mischievous  ambition  and  of  every  crime  with 
which  one  can  blacken  fame.  She  was  bent  on  mis- 
chief, and  she  used  everj^body  and  everything,  and 
adopted  every  measure  to  accomplish  her  evil  de- 
signs. After  the  great  revolution  by  which  Jehu 
seated  himself  on  the  throne  of  Samaria,  she  killed 
all  the  members  of  the  royal  family  of  Judah,  with 
the  single  exception  of  an  infant  named  Joash,  who 
was  destined  in  the  providence  of  God  and  under 
the  wise  management  of  the  high  priest,  Jehoiada, 
to  displace  the  supplanting  mother-queen.  Athaliah 
could  rend  her  garments  in  righteous  indignation  and 
grief,  and  cry  "Treason!"  "Treason!"  as  lustily  as 
the  purest  patriot  in  the  land  when  vengeance  finally 
overtook  her;  but  all  this  was  nothing  to  her  when 
she  herself  was  reveling  in  the  satisfaction  of  usur- 
pation and  murder. 

But  it  is  not  so  much  for  the  purpose  of  recounting 
the  career  of  a  strangely  cruel  and  vicious  woman 
of  the  long  ago  that  her  name  is  now  brought  to  our 
thought,  as  it  is  for  seizing  the  moral  which  lies  in 
the  statement  made  in  the  text. 

This  woman  was  a  mother,  and  she  used  the  sacred 
relationship  of  a  mother  and  the  measureless  influ- 
ence of  a  mother  to  make  her  own  child  the  servant 
of  criminal  baseness.  "For  his  mother  was  his 
counselor  to  do  wickedly."  In  her  thirst  for  blood, 
in  her  enthusiasm  of  tyranny  and  in  her  determination 
to  substitute  the   idolatry   of  her  Phenician  race  for 


BAD  MOTHERS  189 

the  worship  of  the  true  God,  she  did  not  hesitate  to 
pervert  the  judgment  of  her  son  and  constrain  him 
to  a  course  which  would  be  sure  to  result  in  disaster. 
As  she  had  wrought  the  ruin  of  her  husband,  Jeho- 
ram,  and  had  made  his  reign  so  discreditable  and 
hateful  that  when  he  was  dead  they  refused  to  bury 
him  in  the  sepulchers  of  the  kings,  so  she  wrought 
the  ruin  of  her  son,  and  made  his  name  a  standing 
reproach  to  the  nation.  Shrewd,  scheming,  excep- 
tionally influential,  this  mother  used  the  confidential 
relationship  —  a  relationship  which  ought  always  to 
be  so  sacred  —  in  which  she  stood  to  her  son,  and 
all  her  power  of  fascination,  to  make  him  a  wicked 
ruler,  unjust,  immoral,  false  to  God  and  false  to  the 
state. 

It  is  a  gratification  to  think  there  are  not  many 
mothers  in  the  world  who  are  fashioned  after  the 
type  of  this  Athaliah  mother.  For  it  is  simply  im- 
possible to  believe  there  can  be  any  considerable 
number  of  mothers,  even  among  those  who  give  little 
expression  to  a  sense  of  their  religious  obligations, 
open  to  the  depraved  purpose  intelligently  and  de- 
liberately to  counsel  their  children  to  do  things  the}'' 
know  to  be  wrong  and  criminal.  The  mother  in- 
stinct, wise  self-interest,  the  standards  of  civilization, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  regulative  force  of  moral  prin- 
ciple, go  far  in  most  instances  to  restrain  those  who 
have  brought  immortal  souls  into  the  world  from  urg- 
ing them  on  into  careers  of  wickedness  and  vice. 

At   the    same    time   there    are  mothers,  quite    too 


190  BAD  MOTHERS 

many  of  them,  in  the  low,  immoral  classes,  who  in 
their  narrower  sphere  are  guilty  of  just  such  crimi- 
nal conduct  toward  their  children  as  Athaliah  ex- 
hibited toward  her  too  easily  influenced  son.  They 
not  only  countenance  them  in  bad  actions,  but  they 
teach  them  to  lie  and  cheat  and  steal  and  become 
adepts  in  all  arts  of  deception.  They  train  them  into 
decoys  with  which  more  skillfully  and  successfully 
to  carry  on  their  games  of  fraud.  Often  they  deny 
them  suitable  food  and  clothing,  and  sometimes  even 
distort  and  cripple  them, in  order  to  arrest  the  popular 
sympathy  and  make  unhallowed  gains.  Many  gross 
appetites  and  worldly  lusts  are  fed  through  means 
obtained  in  this  horrible  way.  It  is  unutterably  sad 
that  there  can  be  such  mothers.  It  seems  a  caricature, 
a  desecration  of  all  that  is  holy,  to  call  such  creatures 
mothers.  Unless  the  number  of  such  mothers,  as 
well  as  the  number  of  kindred  fathers,  can  be  kept 
within  narrow  bounds,  solicitude  may  well  be  felt  for 
society  at  large. 

But  there  are  mothers,  who,  while  they  do  not 
purpose  in  their  hearts  to  be  bad  mothers,  and  who 
do  not  even  dream  that  they  are  bad  mothers,  and 
who  are  unaffectedly  shocked  at  the  picture  of  such 
a  mother  as  has  just  been  drawn,  take  attitudes  and 
exert  influence  which  are  too  much  after  the  example 
of  Athaliah.  They  do  not  put  their  poisonous  advice 
into  words.  They  do  not  openly  and  pointedly 
counsel  an  excessive  v/orldliness  on  the  part  of  their 
children,  nor  in  so  many  words   suggest   indirection 


BAD  MOTHERS  191 

and  dishonesty  in  their  method  of  securing  gain. 
But  they  never  fail  to  make  it  clear  that  thej^  are 
greatly  pleased  at  any  display  of  business  smartness, 
or  the  skill  by  which  people  are  circumvented  in 
bargains,  or  the  peculiar  kind  of  sagacity  which  en- 
ables them,  to  use  a  phrase  of  the  time,  "to  get  there." 
There  are  no  close  inquiries  into  methods  and  means, 
and  no  sharp  rebukes  administered,  if  it  comes  out 
that  methods  and  means  which  have  been  employed 
to  secure  success  are  not  what  they  ought  to  have 
been  in  uprightness.- 

Sitting  one  daj'  at  the  dinner-table  of  a  parishioner, 
in  one  of  my  earlier  parishes,  the  oldest  son  of  the 
famil}',  a  fine,  strong,  healthy-looking  young  man 
of  twent}^  or  tvvent3'-one,came  bounding  into  the  room  ; 
and  almost  in  the  same  breath  in  which  he  apologized 
for  being  late  he  exclaimed  in  tones  of  triumph  that 
he  had  just  had  a  fine  streak  of  luck.  He  had  been 
out  to  buy  a  wedding  present.  He  found  just  the 
article  he  desired;  the  price  of  it,  however,  was 
twenty-five  dollars,  and  he  wanted  to  get  it  for  twent}'. 
After  bome  higgling  he  decided  to  take  it  at  twenty- 
three;  but  in  giving  him  cliange  the  dealer  had  made 
a  mistake  and  handed  back  too  much,  and  he  had  got- 
ten his  wedding  present  for  eighteen  dollars.  It  was  his 
five  dollars,  which  had  come  to  him  in  this  wa}^,  over 
which  the  young  man  was  jubilant.  The  mother  was 
just  as  glad  as  the  boy,  and  thought  it  just  as  fine  a 
bit  of  good  fortune.  When  appeal  was  made  to  me 
to  see  what  "a  minister"  would  think  of  such  a  trans- 


193  BAD  MOTHERS 

action,  the  opportunity  was  quickl}'  seized  to  show, 
with  as  much  courtesy  as  might  be,  but  also  with  as 
much  clearness  and  directness,  that  taking  advantage 
of  a  mistake  of  this  sort  is  just  simply  stealing. 

There  is  a  vast  amount  of  mischief  done  to  morals 
by  this  winking  at  things  which  are  not  so  just  as 
they  are  cunning,  and  which  are  not  so  helpful  to 
character  as  they  are  thought  to  be  to  bank  accounts. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  consent  to  wickedness  in  set 
terms  to  bring  about  the  practice  of  wickedness. 
Parents  sometimes  say  in  words  to  a  child:  "You 
must  not;"  but  interpreting  by  tones  or  looks  or  past 
experiences,  the  child  understands  very  well  that 
"you  must  not"  really  means  "you  may."  Mothers 
ought  not  to  be  of  this  sort. 

It  does  not  follow  that  a  mother  can  surely  hold 
her  boy  to  straightforwardness,  to  purit}'',  to  worthy 
and  helpful  ideals,  even  though  she  does  her  best  to 
keep  him  in  fellowship  with  truth  and  duty.  But  a 
mother  of  whom  it  may  be  possible  to  say,  as  the 
Scriptures  say  of  Athaliah  in  relation  to  her  son 
Ahaziah:  "For  his  mother  was  his  counselor  to  do 
wickedly,"  will  be  almost  certain  to  see  her  efforts 
crowned  with  a  fatal  success. 

Most  likely,  too,  a  mother  who  just  leans  that  way, 
without  attempting  to  formulate  her  secret  thought 
or  her  sympathy  into  pronounceable  sentences,  will 
have  the  grace  of  God  to  thank  or  the  Divine  provi- 
dence or  the  wholesome  aid  of  friends  or  a  moral 
resoluteness  much  superior  to  what  might  have  been 


BAD  MOTHERS  193 

expected,  if  her  influence  does  not  sweep  her  boy 
from  his  feet,  and  prove  disastrous  to  all  the  elements 
of  a  noble  integrity. 

Is  it  easy  to  conceive  of  anything  more  dismal,  or 
more  to  be  regretted,  than  that  of  a  boy  going  down 
into  dishonesty  and  vice  and  crime  through  the 
counsel  of  his  own  mother  —  or  if  not  through  her 
direct  counsel,  through  her  implied  assent?  When 
Jehoram  was  dead,  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  made 
Ahaziah,  his  3'oungest  son,  king  in  his  stead.  They 
would  have  been  glad  to  be  loyal  to  him.  Evidently 
there  were  qualities  in  him  which  commended  him 
to  the  favor  of  the  people,  and  this  favor,  so  essential 
to  his  usefulness  and  happiness,  he  might  have  re- 
tained to  the  end.  It  only  needed  that  he  do  right. 
But  his  mother  took  him  in  hand;  and  she  who 
ought  to  have  linked  his  destiny  to  the  stars  anc"  made 
his  name  a  name  honored  and  luminous  to  the  ages, 
plunged  him  down  into  the  mire  of  exceptional  deg- 
radation and  wickedness. 

His  mother?  Yes,  his  mother!  "For  his  mother 
was  his  counselor  to  do  wickedly."  It  would  have 
been  horrible  had  it  been  his  father.  It  would  have 
been  horrible  had  it  been  his  associates  —  such  asso- 
ciates as  princes  sometimes  cultivate  and  then  cannot 
throw  off  when  they  become  kings.  It  would  have 
been  horrible  had  it  been  anybody, for  there  is  nothing 
in  this  universe  that  is  quite  so  bad  as  persuading  a 
human  soul  to  flagrant  wickedness.  It  was  not  any 
of  these,  however;  it  was   his   mother.     It   was    she 


194  BAD  MOTHERS 

who  bore  him.  It  was  she  who  nursed  him.  It  was 
she  whose  ear  was  first  greeted  with  the  music  of  his 
half-articulated  words.  It  was  she  who  ought  to 
have  been  as  solicitous  for  his  moral  worth  as  an 
angel  for  the  unstained  whiteness  of  heaven.  She  it 
was  who  led  him  astray  and  helped  him  to  join  his 
name  with  her  own  in  immortal  infamy.  His 
mother! 

The  mischief  of  being  a  bad  mother  is  further  em- 
phasized by  the  consideration  that  a  mother,  in  vir- 
tue of  being  just  what  she  is,  independent  of  any 
influence  she  ma}^  exert  by  positively  evil  counsels,  is 
and  must  be  so  much  to  her  child. 

It  is  possible  the  poets  exaggerate  in  their  estimates 
of  what  mothers  actually  are  to  their  offspring,  and 
what  they  actually  accomplish  for  them.  Still,  even 
in  the  coldest  calculations,  it  must  be  admitted  that 
Walter  Savage  Landor  can  not  be  far  from  right  when 
he  sings: 

Children  are  what  the  mothers  are. 
No  fondest  father's  fondest  care 
Can  fashion  so  the  infant's  heart 
As  those  creative  beams  that  dart, 
With  all  their  hopes  and  fears,  upon 
The  cradle  of  a  sleeping  son. 
His  startled  eyes  with  wonder  see 
A  father  near  him  on  his  knee, 
Who  wishes  all  the  while  to  trace 
The  mother  in  his  future  face; 
But  'tis  to  her  alone  uprise 
His  waking  arms;  to  her  those  eyes 
Open  with  joy  and  not  surprise. 

There  are  exceptions  to  this  statement;  one  would 


BAD  MOTHERS  195 

fain  believe  an  increasing  number  of  exceptions.  Un- 
der the  general  influence  of  Christianity,  and  more 
particularly  under  the  influence  of  Christianity  in 
the  home,  more  fathers  are  coming  to  share  with  the 
mothers  in  a  motherly  tenderness  for  children. 

Here  is  another  tribute  to  the  high  function  of  the 
mother  which  has  its  justification  in  a  large  number 
of  examples  in  the  past: 

The  mother  in  her  office  holds  the  key 

Of  the  soul,  and  she  it  is  who  stamps  the  coin 

Of  character,  and  makes  the  being,  who  would  be  a  savage 

But  for  her  gentle  cares,  a  Christian  man, 

Not  always  is  it  so.  Not  always  can  the  mother 
and  the  father  working  together,  and  aided  as  they 
may  be  by  others  who  join  forces  with  them  in  their 
beneficent  aim,  put  the  sure  stamp  of  Christian  char- 
acter on  even  the  most  tenderly  cherished  child;  but 
he  knows  little  of  human  nature  and  little  of  the  bi- 
ography of  the  world's  leading  names,  who  does  not 
accord  an  immense  potency  to  the  molding  influence 
of  a  mother.  It  would  be  useless  to  institute  compari- 
sons between  a  mother's  influence  and  the  influence 
of  other  persons,  or  between  a  mother's  influence  and 
the  influence  of  the  same  woman  in  other  relations  of 
life;  but  even  the  most  self-distrusting  mother  and 
the  most  cynical  critic  would  find  it  impossible  suc- 
cessfully to  deny  a  fact  on  which  the  ages  have  laid 
such  stress. 

No  doubt  the  pre-natal  influence  of  a  mother  on 
her  child  is  often  very  great.  It  was  not  a  mere  ac- 
cident or  coincidence  that  Walter  Scott's  mother  was 


196  BAD  MOTHERS 

a  great  lover  of  poetry  and  painting;  or  that  Byron's 
mother  was  a  proud  woman,  ill-tempered  and  violent; 
or  that  Nero's  mother  was  a  mm'deress;  or  that  Na- 
poleon's mother  was  a  woman  of  prodigious  energy; 
or  that  Patrick  Henry's  mother  was  a  distinguished 
talker;  or  that  Lord  Bacon's  mother  was  remarkable 
for  her  superior  mental  gifts;  or  that  Wesley's  mother 
had  executive  ability  enough  to  manage  a  state;  or 
that  Washington's  mother  was  devout  and  pure  and 
true,  and  of  the  loftiest  character.  In  an  array  of 
facts  of  which  these  are  only  specimens  there  must 
be  something  beside  mere  chance. 

When  to  the  pre-natal  influence  there  is  added  the 
after-influence  of  instruction  and  association  and  ex- 
ample, which  moves  along  in  the  same  direction  and 
continues  without  check  or  abatement  through  all  the 
years  of  special  susceptibility  to  educating  efi'orts, 
nothing  short  of  the  endless  ages  can  reveal  how  de- 
cisive and  momentous  has  been  the  action  of  a  moth- 
er's life  and  personality  on  the  life  and  personality 
of  her  child.  Benjamin  West  used  to  say  it  was  a 
kiss  of  his  mother  which  made  him  a  painter.  While 
a  mere  lad  he  sketched  in  rough  outline  the  face  of 
his  little  sister  as  she  lay  in  the  cradle  before  him. 
The  mother  saw  promise  in  the  work  of  the  boy,  and 
she  bent  down  over  him  and  kissed  her  approbation 
and  her  hope  into  his  rosy  cheek.  Many  a  boy  has 
gone  bounding  away  to  his  apprenticeship,  or  to  his 
books,  or  to  his  first  struggle  in  business,  because  the 
mother  has  had  both  the  wisdom  and  the  love  to  speak 


BAD  MOTHERS  197 

an  encouraging  word  at  the  right  time.  Her  words 
were  at  once  benedictions  and  inspirations. 

The  factors  in  society  for  which  we  have  the  least 
use  are  bad  mothers.  The  evil  influences  which  we 
find  it  hardest  to  counteract  are  the  influences  of  bad 
mothers.  All  are  familiar  with  the  famous  reply  of 
Napoleon:  "What  is  the  greatest  need  in  the  French 
Nation?"  But  we  cannot  recall  the  answer  too  fre- 
quently, nor  repeat  it  with  too  much  emphasis: 
"Mothers."  He  meant,  of  course,  good  mothers, 
motherly  mothers,  faithful  mothers,  pure  mothers, 
mothers  who  would  take  just  pride  in  their  sons  and 
daughters,  and  do  their  best  to  train  them  in  wa3'S 
of  industry  and  virtue  and  high  worth.  Is  there 
anything  any  nation  needs  more.^^  Is  there  any- 
thing which,  were  a  nation  to  be  largely  wanting  in 
it,  would  sooner  work  the  ruin  of  a  people?  On  no 
account  can  fathers  be  relieved  of  responsibility;  but 
when  the  mothers  in  any  land  cease  to  be  wise  and 
pure  and  true,  civil  order  in  that  land  is  near  to  its 
overthrow. 

How  much  this  nation  owes  to  its  mothers!  What 
a  different  story  there  would  have  been  to  tell  had 
the  mothers  of  the  Colonial  period,  when  Massachu- 
setts and  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  and  Viroinia 
and  Pennsylvania  were  in  the  formative  stage,  not 
been  the  large-minded  and  self-sacrificing  and  brave 
women  they  were!  How  unlike  what  it  is  would 
have  been  the  record  of  the  Revolutionary  period, 
when  it  was  as  essential  to  the  independence  and  self- 


198  '£4D  MOTHERS 

government  of  the  people  that  there  should  be  large- 
souled  and  far-seeing  and  patriotic  women  to  preside 
over  the  hearthstone  and  rule  in  the  domestic  circle, 
as  that  there  should  be  daring  and  determined  and 
liberty-loving  and  splendidly  devoted  men  to  take 
their  places  in  legislative  halls  and  in  camps,  had 
these  women  been  wanting!  Who  knows  what 
would  have  been  the  outcome;  or  rather  who  does 
not  know  how  much  more  uncertain  would  have  been 
the  outcome,  in  the  great  Rebellion  period,  when 
there  was  a  service  of  enthusiasm  for  the  preservation 
of  the  Union  to  be  rendered  by  the  beloved  ones  who 
were  left  behind  to  watch  and  wait  and  toil  and  pray, 
as  there  was  a  service  for  manning  forts  and  sailing 
ships  and  lying  in  trenches  and  storming  breast- 
works and  wading  rivers  and  swamps  and  scaling 
heights  and  resisting  assaults  and  sweeping  enemies 
from  the  field  where  sabers  flashed  and  cannon  roared 
and  shot  fell  like  hail,  to  be  rendered  by  those 
who  went  to  the  front,  had  not  so  many  of  the  wom- 
en of  the  North  been  made  of  the  stuff  found  in  the 
highest  pattern  of  women  in  all  the  ages?  No  author 
can  fitly  tell  the  story  of  American  history  without 
devoting  ample  space  to  the  high  spirit  and  eminent 
virtue  of  our  American  mothers. 

France  needed,  and  still  needs,  mothers.  Yes; 
but  so  does  Germany,  and  so  does  England,  and  so 
does  our  own  fair  land;  and  life  here  and  there  and 
everywhere  will  move  up  as  the  mothers  advance. 

How  sharp  is  the  contrast  between  this  mother  and 


BAD  MOTHERS  199 

that  Other  mother  whose  name  has  illuminated  Scrip- 
ture story!  Only  with  tender  reverence  can  we 
mention  Hannah.  Only  with  shrinking  horror  can 
we  take  Athaliah  on  our  lips.  How  fortunate  Sam- 
uel! How  inexpressibly  unfortunate  was  Ahaziah! 
Hannah  thanked  God  for  the  gift  of  her  boy,  and 
consecrated  him  early  to  the  Lord, and  helped  him  in 
his  religious  life  and  in  the  making  of  a  name  which 
has  filled  the  centuries  with  fragrance.  Athaliah 
waited  upon  her  boy  with  malign  influence,  and 
turned  him  away  from  God,  and  aided  him  in  secur- 
ing an  inheritance  of  undying  infamy.  Hannah  and 
Athaliah  —  the  two  mothers;  Samuel  and  Ahaziah  — 
the  two  sons.  The  one  high  up  in  the  admiration  of 
mankind !  The  other  down  in  the  depths  of  human  con- 
tempt! The  one  an  inspiration!  The  other  a  warning! 
The  one  a  good  mother,  and  blessed  with  a  good 
son,  whom  she  sought  to  make  better!  The  other  a 
bad  mother,  who  took  her  son,  and,  whatever  his 
natural  disposition  or  tendency,  worked  upon  him 
and  molded  him  till  there  was  nothing  for  God  to  do 
but  destroy  him  for  his  wickedness! 


THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  HOME. 

And  these  words,  -jv/uch  I  command  thee  this  day,  shall  be 
upon  thine  heart;  and  thou  shalt  teach  them  diligently 
unto  thy  children,  and  shall  talk  of  them  when  thou 
sittest  in  thine  house,  and  when  thou  walkest  by  the 
way,  and  when  thou  liest  down,  and  when  thou  riscst 
up.     Dent.  6:  6-7. 

It  is  my  purpose  this  morning  to  say  a  few  words 
about  The  Bible  in  the  Home.  This  is  the  thought 
which  grows  naturally  out  of  the  passage  before  us. 
According  to  the  requirements  laid  upon  the  children 
of  Israel,*' these  words"  were  not  only  to  be  cherished 
in  their  individual  hearts,  but  they  were  to  have  cen- 
tral and  honored  place  in  the  home-circle.  They 
were  to  be  welcomed  to  the  hearthstone,  and  installed 
in  power  over  the  family.  They  were  to  enter  into 
the  economy  of  the  daily  domestic  life  of  the  people 
and  to  be  the  basis  of  a  common  and  universal  in- 
struction. 

As  another  has  said:  "Moses  provided  for  a  system 
of  national  education  through  the  family;  ever}^  child 
was  to  be  taught  to  read  and  write;  to  be  made  ac- 
quainted with  the  history  of  his  own  country  and  of 
surrounding  nations,  and  with  the  great  national  and 
religious  law-book  of  the  country.  Parents  were  to 
be  so  imbued  with  the  Word  of  God   that  this  should 

200 


THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  HOME  201 

give  tone  to  their  daily  conversation  and  impress 
itself  upon  the  very  house.  Only  by  such  home-train- 
ing," our  author  adds,  "can  a  nation  be  kept  true 
to  God." 

In  our  land  and  day,  we  have  what  is  generally 
known  as  the  common -school  system  —  a  system 
which  we  cannot  cherish  too  fondly,  nor  guard  too 
sacredly,  since  it  contemplates  the  securing  of  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  knowledge  and  mental  discipline  to 
every  child  within  the  realm.  Far  be  the  day  when 
any  spirit  of  sectarianism  shall  be  permitted  to  enter 
in  and  mar  the  unity  and  usefulness  of  the  common- 
school  S3'stem  of  the  republic. 

Moses  had  precisely  the  same  object  in  mind,  only 
he  made  the  home  the  center  of  instruction,  with 
parents  for  teachers,  and  the  "words"  God  had 
spoken  for  the  chief  text-book.  These  "words"  were 
the  lessons  to  be  diligently  and  faithfully  impressed 
upon  the  children,  the  themes  of  familiar  social  in- 
tercourse, the  thoughts  to  linger  longest  at  night,  to 
be  greeted  first  in  the  morning;  and  when  men  went 
out  they  were  not  to  forget  them,  but  were  still  to 
talk  about  them  by  the  way. 

Now,  without  desiring,  as  may  be  inferred  from 
what  has  already  been  said,  to  disparage  in  the  least 
our  modern  system  of  education,  nor  wishing  to 
modify  it  essentially,  save  in  the  direction  of  more 
emphasis  on  the  moral  element,  I  venture  to  insist 
tliat  the  missing  link  in  the  training  of  the  present 
tirrie  is  the  Bible  in  the  home.   Just  where  Moses  laid 


'302  THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  HOME 

Stress  in  his  plan  of  national  education  is  just  where 
we  need  to  lay  stress.  It  is  on  the  family  and  on 
the  Word  of  God  in  the  family.  It  is  on  the  Bible 
in  the  home.  Cast  out  of  the  school,  it  is  all  the 
more  imperative  that  the  facts  and  truths  and  precepts 
and  laws  of  the  sacred  volume  be  taught  at  the  fire- 
side. 

We  have  the  Bible  in  the  pulpit,  in  the  Sunday- 
school,  in  the  seminary.  It  enters  as  an  informing 
element  into  the  civil  and  social  structure  of  society. 
To  a  large  extent  laws  are  based  upon  its  moral 
standards.  It  is  often  quoted  with  reverence  in  halls 
of  legislation.  But  the  place  where  the  Bible  is  pre- 
eminently potent  and  preeminently  indispensable  is  in 
the  home.  Wherever  else  the  Bible  is  or  is  not,  it 
must  be  in  the  home,  or  the  best  influence    on  life  is 

lost. 

But  let  us  understand  just  what  is  meant  by  this. 
For  it  is  not  enough  that  the  Bible  hold  its  place  in 
the  home  as  a  mere  empty  parade.  An  elegant  copy, 
gilt-edged,  turkej'-bound,  double-clasped,  stored 
away  as  ornamental  furniture  in  a  cold  and  unfre- 
quented parlor,  too  ponderous  for  use  and  too  rarely 
seen  ever  to  disturb  the  conscience,  does  not  meet  the 
case.  It  must  have  some  vital  relation  to  the  daily 
economy  of  every  heart.  It  must  be  in  fresh  and 
constant  use;  the  Book  of  habitual  reference,  study 
and  delight.  This  is  what  is  meant  by  the  Bible  in 
the  home, — the  Bible  open,  the  Bible  read,  the  Bible 
every  day,  the  Bible  year  in  and  year  out,  the  Bible 


THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  HOME  203 

in  health  as  well  as  in  sickness,  in  prosperity  as  well 
as  in  adversity,  the  Bible  for  the  parents,  the  Bible 
for  the  children,  the  Bible  for  all  together  —  a  hope- 
anchor  of  the  sou],  a  bow  of  promise  against  every 
adverse  sky,  an  inexhaustible  source  of  strength,  a 
fresh  and  fragrant  wisdom  and  an  unfailing  guide 
and  inspiration  of  the  soul. 

The  further  development  of  this  subject  will  lead 
us  to  notice 

I.  The  -peculiar  facilities  which  the  home  affords 
for  the  proper  study  of  the  Bible  and  especially  for 
training  and  indoctrinating  children  in  Scripture 
truths. 

Here,  at  the  outset,  it  will  be  in  place  to  utter  pro- 
test against  the  notion,  quite  too  prevalent,  that  the 
Bible,  plain  and  simple,  can  not  be  made  interesting 
to  the  little  folks.  It  is  above  their  comprehension, 
it  is  said,  and  so  it  is  absurd  to  try  to  familiarize  their 
minds  with  its  stories  and  teachings.  Of  portions  of 
the  Bible  and  of  some  of  the  truths  of  the  Bible,  par- 
ticularly in  their  abstract  and  remote  relations,  this 
doubtless  is  the  fact.  The  doctrine  of  self-existence 
baffles  all  human  comprehension.  The  incarnation 
involves  principles  before  which  a  Butler  or  a  New- 
ton or  a  Bacon  must  stand  in  mute  and  conquered 
wonder.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  true  of  a  great 
number  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible  especially  as 
they  are  stated  in  the  Bible,  that  there  is  a  marvelous 
adaptation  in  them  to  the  tastes  and  requirements  of 
the  young.      The  stories  and   incidents,  the   striking 


204  THE  BIBLE  IN  7EIE  HOME 

illustrations,  the  wonderful  facts,  the  graphic  histories 
of  individuals  and  nations,  the  simple  language  em- 
ployed, the  warnings  uttered  and  the  hopes  set  forth, 
all  combine  to  make  the  Bible  an  attractive  book  to 
children. 

It  would  be  a  very  strange  thing  were  it  not  so.  For 
the  sweetest  invitations,  the  strongest  appeals  —  if 
not  all,  yet  many  of  them — in  all  the  sacred  book 
are  addressed  to  children  and  youth.  "Suffer  little 
children  to  come  unto  me."  Jesus  had  the  stor}'  of 
His  life  so  written  that  children  should  be  drawn  to 
Him.  His  singular  birth,  His  strange  career.  His 
miracles  and  parables.  His  deep  sympathy  with  the 
poor  and  neglected  and  distressed,  the  way  He  was 
treated.  His  words  about  the  birds  of  the  air,  the 
flowers  of  the  field,  the  vines  on  the  hillside,  the 
growing  corn  —  all  so  simple  and  beautiful  and  touch- 
ing—  are  eminently  fitted  to  fascinate  alert  and 
growing  minds.     The  facts  bear  out  this  expectation. 

One  day  in  a  Sabbath-school  with  which  1  was 
connected,  I  found  a  little  boy  who  was  reading  the 
Bible  through  by  course.  He  was  drawn  to  this  task 
by  the  interest  which  the  simple,  unexplained  narra- 
tive had  awakened  in  his  mind.  With  many  of  the 
leading  facts  and  incidents  he  was  perfectly  familiar, 
so  attractive  and  impressive  had  they  proved  to  him. 
It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  this  mere  lad  was  able  to 
discuss  and  explain  and  reconcile  the  ideas  of  di- 
vine decrees  and  free  agency ;  but  he  did  make  it 
clear  that  the  way  of  life  through  Jesus  Christ  was 


THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  HOME  205 

level  to  his  comprehension,  and  that  the  story  of  that 
way  of  life  is  so  put  in  the  Bible  that  he  loved  to 
read  it. 

In  some  respects  this  may  be  an  exceptional  in- 
stance. At  the  same  time,  in  the  case  of  a  large 
majorit}^  of  children,  I  am  confident  they  only  need 
to  be  led  and  kindly  accompanied  to  manifest  an  in- 
terest and  feel  delight  in  reading  this  wonderful 
book. 

But  supposing  the  opposite  were  true,  what  then  ? 
Is  wholesome  instruction  to  be  withheld  because,  for- 
sooth, it  maybe  distasteful?  Are  no  truths  to  be 
communicated  to  a  child  which  the  child  cannot  at 
once  comprehend?  Must  great  and  essential  lessons 
be  simmered  down  till  there  is  no  substance  in  them, 
or  overborne  with  twaddling  explanations  which 
make  them  something  other  than  what  they  really 
are? 

God  teaches  another  and  better  wisdom.  For  us 
all,  this  is  a  life  of  faith  and  not  of  seeing.  In  every 
sphere  of  activity,  and  at  every  period  of  existence, 
much  must  be  believed  which  cannot  be  understood. 
It  is  not  one  law  for  the  child  and  another  for  the 
adult,  but  trust  largely  for  both  alike. 

It  would  seem  sufficient  warrant,  therefore,  for  one's 
actions,  that  he  do  for  his  little  ones  just  what  God 
does  for  all  —  give  a  great  many  things  which  must 
be  taken  on  trust  without  being  fully  understood. 
Truth  is  to  be  made  as  simple  and  interesting  as  pos- 
sible; but  care  is  to  be    taken   that  it  remain    truth, 


206  THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  HOME 

and  not  be  transformed  into  sickening  nonsense.  Let 
the  meat  be  cut  fine,  but  let  it  remain  meat  still.  The 
instruction  given  ought  to  be  warmed,  quickened, 
illustrated,  beautified,  just  as  far  as  ma}?  be;  but  too 
often  the  attempt  to  make  truth  pleasant  exhausts 
itself  in  the  communication  of  pleasure  merely.  No 
good  is  done. 

It  all  comes  round  to  this:  There  is  wanted  a 
larger  faith  in  the  receptive  capacity  of  children,  and 
a  wiser  reference  to  their  future  good.  We  ought 
to  act  more  on  the  basis  of  the  fact  that  children  can 
and  do  think.  The  young  mind  is  a  virgin  soil.  If 
good  seed  be  dropped  into  it,  and  planted  deep,  un- 
der God's  sunshine  and  moisture,  there  will  be  sure 
to  be  fruit  in  the  future. 

In  the  training  of  children  there  must  be  a  policy 
of  forward-looking.  Ultimate  advantage  is  to  domi- 
nate immediate  pleasure. 

Not  long  ago,  I  heard  an  intelligent  and  faithful 
minister  say:  "When  I  was  a  child  my  mother 
taught  me  the  catechism  —  taught  it  to  me  so  that  I 
knew  it  by  heart.  I  did  not  like  it  at  the  time.  I 
could  not  understand  it.  For  years  afterwards  I 
thought  the  method  a  wrong  one.  But  now,  at  forty, 
I  know  it  was  right.  For  those  truths  so  early  ac- 
quired are  within  me,  ineradicable  and  imperishable, 
—  a  fresh  and  bubbling  spring  of  living  water  —  a 
fountain  of  light  —  an  arm  of  strength  and  a  joy  for- 
ever. I  thank  God,"  he  added,  "that  He  gave  me  a 
mother  faithful  enough  and  far-seeing  enough  to  lay 


THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  HOME  207 

thus  broad  and  deep  the  foundations  of  my  religious 
culture."  Is  it  not  clear  that  this  strong  man  would 
have  been  robbed  of  a  prime  element  of  strength,  and 
defrauded  of  a  postiession  more  precious  than  gold, 
had  not  this  wise  and  devoted  mother  planted  seeds 
thus  early  which  should  in  after  years  ripen  into  a 
substantial  harvest  of  rich  and  strong  and  manly 
character? 

Right  here,  then,  is  the  point.  It  is  because  the 
home  is  what  it  is  that  it  may  be  spoken  of  as  furnish- 
ing peculiar  facilities  for  this  Bible-training.  For, 
take  the  home  in  the  true  idea  of  it  —  the  home  in 
any  faint  degree  approximate  to  what  it  ought  to  be 
—  and  is  it  not  sacred? 

The  home  is  one  of  the  earliest  and  divinest  insti- 
tutions of  earth.  The  spot  of  earth  it  stands  upon  is 
precious.  Its  unit}'-,  its  individuality,  its  whole  dis- 
tinctive economy  are  hallowed.  The  love  and  self- 
sacrificing  devotion  of  parents,  the  reverent  and 
obedient  affection  of  children  —  these  are  hints  of 
something  above  the  earth.  The  heart  of  a  child  turns 
instinctivel}'  to  the  home,  and  knows  no  other  place 
so  attractive.  There  is  the  father,  provident  and 
wise,  and  known  familiarly  and  loved  tenderly  as  he 
is  nowhere  else  on  earth.  There  is  the  mother,  pa- 
tient, industrious,  careful,  and  she  loves,  and  still 
loves,  with  a  swelling  tide  right  on  unto  the  end. 
There  are  the  brothers  and  sisters,  grouped  in  one 
fond  circle  of  courteous  and  mutual  helpers.  There 
is  the  old  hearthstone,  around  which  all    gather,  and 


208  THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  HOME 

where  the  long  evenings  are  spent  in  reading  and  so- 
cial delight.  There  is  the  table,  unlike  all  other 
tables,  from  which  God's  bounty  is  daily  partaken. 
There  is  the  home-room,  where  all  constraint  is  re- 
moved, and  where  the  joy  and  freedom  of  familiar 
intercourse  reign  undisputed.  There  is,  or  there 
ought  to  be,  the  family  altar,  whence  ascends  the  in- 
cense of  devout  gratitude  to  the  Heavenly  Father 
for  His  infinite  goodness  day  by  day.  There  is  the 
twilight  window.  There  is  the  sick-room.  There 
are  the  chamber  of  birth  and  the  chamber  of  death. 
There  are  the  tokens  scattered  up  and  down,  and 
radiant  with  the  memories  of  those  who  have  gone 
before.  There  are  the  birthday  festivals.  There 
are  the  unions  and  reunions  of  severed  ones  —  types 
suggestive  of  those  higher  and  holier  meetings  Chris- 
tian households  shall  experience  beyond  the  valley 
of  the  shadow.  There  life-plans  are  talked  over 
and  formed.  There  griefs  are  softly  whispered  and 
hopes  announced.  There  confidential  disclosures  are 
made.  There  sympathies  deep  and  precious  and 
true  are  shared.  To  the  home  the  body  in  its 
feebleness  and  the  heart  in  its  weariness  and  the 
brain  under  pressure  of  throbbing  excitement  turn 
for  refuge.  God  pity  those  who  have  no  home! 
For  the  sun,  in  all  his  journey ings  around  the  globe, 
looks  down  upon  nothing  which  has  gathered  into 
itself  so  much  unsullied  purity,  so  much  unallo3^ed 
sweetness,  so  much  that  is  comforting  and  inspiring, 
as  the  love-sanctified  home.      It  lies    right   along   on 


THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  HOME  209 

the  borders  of  the  bettei  land.  No  appeal  comes 
nearer  the  heart  than  the  thought  of  the  heavenly 
home.  The  emotions  which  the  home  awakens  lift 
the  heart  easily  and  naturally  into  the  contemplation 
of  divine  promises  and  divine  verities. 

All  this,  therefore,  makes  of  the  home  a  golden 
opportunity  for  impressing  the  Word  of  God  upon 
the  minds  of  children.  The  home  atmosphere,  so 
transfigured  and  fraught  with  love,  may  become  an 
easy  medium  for  the  transmission  of  Scripture  facts 
and  truths.  These  home  sentiments  and  affections 
can  be  used  as  wings  on  which  to  bear  the  soul  to 
loftier  and  serener  heights.  The  joys  and  delights 
of  the  home  may  be  woven  into  a  garment  of  beaut}^ 
with  which  to  dress  up  the  doctrines  of  divine  grace. 
The  sweet  love-light  of  the  home  may  be  thrown 
upon  the  Bible  to  lend  to  it  the  attractiveness  of  sa- 
cred association.  The  baptism  of  twilight  moments 
and  Sabbath  hours  may  be  made  to  rest  upon  the 
words  of  revelation  in  such  a  way  that  they  shall  stand 
out  and  apart  in  the  mind  ever  after. 

This  opportunity  of  the  home  has  only  to  be  used 
in  order  to  sanctify  it  to  sure  and  precious  results. 
Both  parents  ought  to  use  it,  the  father  as  well  as  the 
mother.  I  know  of  no  teaching  in  the  Word  of  God, 
nor  in  what  seems  to  be  the  common  sense  and  the 
common  equities  of  the  case,  which  exempts  the 
father  from  his  fair  share  of  loving  endeavor  in  this 
direction. 

At  the  same  time  it  is  the   mother  who  is  the  nat- 


210  THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  HOME 

ura]  priestess  of  the  home.  She  it  is,  who  with  her 
child  upon  her  knee  can  preach  with  an  effective- 
ness which  no  pulpit  can  command.  To  her  child  she 
has  surely  been  called  of  God  to  preach.  Her  ordi- 
nation has  not  been  by  the  laying  on  of  the  hands  of 
presbytery,  but  by  decree  of  the  Most  High.  She 
with  her  fine  instinct  of  love,  she  as  the  natural  cen- 
ter of  home  confidences,  she  with  her  inexhaustible 
ingenuity  of  love,  she  in  the  mellow  hush  of  the  holy 
hour  when  lisping  prayers  are  guided  and  confes- 
sional is  opened  for  burdened  little  souls,  she  when 
griefs  cry  to  her  for  soothing,  and  fancied  wrongs 
demand  maternal  arbitration  and  redress,  and  weary 
little  feet  turn  toward  her  for  rest,  and  aching  little 
heads  bend  over  on  her  bosom  for  repose,  she  with 
all  that  is  sacred  and  pure  and  ennobling  in  the 
thought  of  home  and  with  mother-love  to  enforce  her 
teaching  —  she  can  take  this  Word  of  life  in  her  hand, 
and  make  its  stories  and  heavenly  lessons  so  beautiful 
and  winning  that  the  eyes  shall  never  weary  of  gaz- 
ing on  them,  nor  the  heart  grow  impatient  of  the 
burden  of  their  memory.  How  many  mothers  are 
there  working  in  this  way  with  their  children  ? 

Sabbath-schools,  private  schools,  public  schools, 
churches,  no  matter  how  good  they  may  be,  can  not 
take  the  place  of  wise  and  patient  and  loving  instruc- 
tion in  the  Word  of  God  in  the  home. 

n.  The  Bible  used  habitually  and  reverently  in  the 
home,  in  the  -way  just  now  indicated,  used  as  text- 
book from  which  to  impart  and  receive  instruction  in 


THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  HOME  211 

the  things  pertaining  to  God  and  a  right  life,  tends 
to  exert  an  influence  on  the  home  which  is  above  es- 
timate. 

This  proposition,  it  will  be  perceived,  differs  from 
the  foregoing  one,  in  that  it  turns  the  thought  of  the 
Bible  in  the  home  squarely  around;  and  under  it,  in- 
stead of  thinking  of  the  facilities  which  the  home 
affords  for  the  proper  study  of  the  Bible  and  espec- 
ially for  training  and  instructing  children  in  the 
truths  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  we  shall  be  led  to  con- 
sider how  this  kind  of  instruction  reacts  upon  the 
home,  and  aids  in  making  each  home  where  this 
policy  of  Bible-teaching  is    pursued   an  ideal   home. 

Not  all  homes  are  ideal.  On  the  contrary,  there 
are  few  ideal  homes.  There  are  few  homes  where 
all  the  arrangements  and  all  the  relations  and  all 
the  intercourse  and  all  the  influences  exerted  and 
felt,  fill  out  the  lines  of  the  picture  just  drawn  of  a 
home  in  which  there  is  nothing  but  sweetness  and 
light.  Taking  the  world  as  it  is,  there  are  many 
hearthstones  around  which  no  heavenly  influences 
hover.  Instead  of  being  pervaded  with  an  atmos- 
phere in  which  the  thoughts  of  the  young  are  easily 
lifted  God-ward,  what  multitudes  of  homes  there  are 
which  must  needs  be  changed  in  all  their  inner  econ- 
omy before  they  can  be  made  to  suggest  anything 
really  divine!  The  parents  are  not  disciples  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  There  is  no  family  altar.  The 
children  never  hear  the  father's  voice  invoking  the 
divine  blessing  at  table.     When   the   little   ones  go 


212  THE  BIBLE  EV  THE  HOME 

to  rest  there  is  no  hushed  moment  in  which  the 
mother  bends  over  them,  and  with  sweet  guidance 
fore-utters  for  their  lisping  tongues  the  precious  peti- 
tion which  John  Quincy  Adams  used  to  say  he  never 
failed  to  repeat  on  retiring: 

Now  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep, 

I  pray  thee,  Lord,  my  soul  to  keep. 

No  in-dweller  and  no  passer-by  is  ever  saluted 
with  the  melody  of  the  old  time-sanctified  Psalms 
and  hymns,  which  have  so  much  power  to  cheer  the 
heart  and  chasten  the  spirit.  Standing  in  the  midst 
of  them,  one  is  not  made  to  feel  that  the  light  of 
heaven  has  ever  broken  through,  and  touched  them 
v^^ith  supernal  illuminations  and  glories.  They  may 
be  homes  of  wealth  or  poverty,  but  they  are  alike  in 
suggesting  the  absence  of  a  loving  recognition  of 
God.  There  is  the  lack  in  them  of  the  beauty  of 
holiness,  and  one  misses  the  perfume  of  the  unseen 
world,  whose  fragrant  atmosphere  it  is  possible  to 
breathe  here  and  now. 

It  would  not  be  right  to  say  that  there  is  no  love 
in  these  homes,  for  in  many  of  them  there  is  love, 
tender  and  true.  It  would  not  be  right  to  say  there 
is  no  elevated  sentiment,  and  no  interest  in  good 
morals,  and  no  joy  in  many  of  these  homes;  for  this, 
again,  would  not  be  true.  But  there  is  no  sweet 
sense  of  God,  and  no  effort  to  organize  the  home- 
life  around  the  central  thought  of  Christ  and  His  will. 

Now,  it  will  require  but  little  reflection  to  see  that 
the  Bible,  if  it  can  only  be  fairly  installed  in  the  home, 
is  adapted  in  all  its  teachings  and  tendencies  to  ac- 


THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  HOME  213 

complish  the  transformation  and  sanctification  of  the 
home,  and  take  it  far  on  towards  the  ideal. 

I.  Firsts  then,  the  Bible  in  the  home,  in  the  sense 
already  defined,  dignifies  and  ennobles  the  home  by 
certifying  to  its  divine  origination. 

Men  fall  easily  into  the  notion,  in  effect  at  least, 
that  the  family  relation  is  merely  a  convenience  of 
civilization;  and  that  it  finds  its  warrant  in  the  habits 
and  customs  of  the  world.  But  the  Bible  shows  that 
the  family  relation,  beginning  with  the  relation  of 
husband  and  wife,  is  a  divine  institution.  It  is  God 
who  setteth  the  solitary  in  families.  The  family  dates 
back  to  the  Garden.  It  was  established  at  the  cre- 
ation of  man  and  woman,  and  when  the  soul  was  in 
its  innocency.  In  the  fall  of  man  the  sacredness  of 
the  marriage  relation  suffered;  but  like  the  human 
heart  the  household  is  to  be  redeemed  and  elevated 
until  God's  image  is  clearlj'  on  it. 

When  men  can  be  made  to  realize  this,  it  places 
the  home  on  a  broader  and  firmer  basis  than  that  of 
a  simple  business  contract  entered  into  for  temporary 
convenience  or  advantage  or  pleasure.  For  to 
realize  this  is  to  see  that  the  home  has  not  grown  up 
out  of  the  passions  and  appetites  of  the  earth,  but 
that  it  has  come  down  from  God  out  of  heaven,  and 
has  on  it  the  stamp  of  the  wisdom  and  love  of  the 
Infinite  Father. 

What  a  difference  it  would  make  in  countless 
homes  just  to  start  with  this  idea  of  God  at  the  out- 
set and  at  the  basis  and    at   the   heart  of  the   family 


%U  THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  HOME 

relation!  With  this  fact  dominant,  would  there  be 
so  much  infidelity  of  husband  to  wife  and  of  wife  to 
husband  —  so  many  marital  farces  —  so  many  awful 
marital  tragedies  enacted?  Few  men  ever  get  this 
idea  thoroughly  into  them  without  the  Word  of  God 
to  impart  it.  With  the  Bible  in  the  home,  faithfully 
and  reverently  studied,  it  would  hardly  be  possible 
for  anybody  not  to  have  this  idea. 

2.  The  Bible  in  the  home  tends  to  lijt  the  every- 
day life  of  the  home  to  a  higher  platie,  and  to  7nake 
it,  in  all  its  ongoings  and  appointments,  fnore  har- 
inonious  and  blessed. 

The  Bible,  for  instance,  lends  new  sacredness  to 
parents  and  new  dearness  to  children.  It  binds  heart 
to  heart  with  closer  tie.  It  increases  the  obligations 
and  quickens  the  sympathies  of  every  member  of  the 
household.  It  opens  new  sources  of  domestic  joy 
and  enhances  every  material  good.  It  makes  gray 
hairs  more  venerable  and  innocent  childish  prattle 
more  sweet.  It  informs  the  simple  songs  which  are 
sung  with  a  diviner  melod}'.  It  freights  the  con- 
versation with  grander  themes.  It  elevates  every 
thought  to  a  higher  level.  It  furnishes  the  strongest 
of  all  motives  to  harmony,  forbearance,  patience  and 
mutual  love.  The  precepts  which  it  lays  down  for 
the  guidance  of  husbands  and  wives,  of  fathers  and 
mothers,  of  sons  and  daughters,  would  bring  into 
the  world  much  of  the  love  and  harmony  and  bliss 
of  heaven.  In  the  simple  injunctions  of  kindness 
one  to  another  and  of  entreaties  and  warnings    in  re- 


THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  HOME  215 

gard  to  little  things  which  the  Bible  lays  down, 
there  are  influences  conservative  of  mutual  forbear- 
ance and  love  and  joy  above  price. 

This  is  of  great  consequence.  For,  after  all,  more 
frequently  than  otherwise,  is  it  not  the  little  foxes 
which  spoil  the  grapes  of  domestic  felicity?  The 
story  of  many  a  wreck  of  married  love  is  told  by 
Moore  when  he  sings: 

Something  light  as  air  —  a  look, 

A  word  unkind  or  wrongly  taken  — 
Oh  !  love,  that  tempests  never  shook, 

A  breath,  a  touch  like  this  hath  shaken. 
And  ruder  words  will  soon  rush  in 
To  spread  the  breach  that  words  begin; 
And  eyes  forget  the  gentle  ray 
They  wore  in  courtship's  smiling  day; 
And  voices  lose  the  tone  that  shed 
A  tenderness  round  all  they  said; 
Till  fast  declining  one  by  one. 
The  sweetnesses  of  love  are  gone. 
And  hearts,  so  lately  mingled,  seem 
Like  broken  clouds,  or  like  the  stream 
That  smiling  left  the  mountain's  brow, 

As  though  its  waters  ne'er  could  sever, 
Yet,  ere  it  reach  the  plain  below, 

Breaks  into  floods  that  part  forever. 

As  no  other  book,  the  Bible  is  suited  to  lay  a  re- 
straining force  on  these  incipient    outbreaks. 

Then,  in  connection  with  this  thought  of  the  Bible 
in  the  home,  consider  the  sweet  and  solid  comfort 
there  is  in  it, —  in  its  invitations, in  its  promises,  in  its 
encouragements,  in  its  lofty  standards  of  conduct  for 
aspiring  or  perplexed  or  weary  or  suffering  ones, 
whether  parents  or  children,     To  one  who  has  long 


216  THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  HOME 

been  wont  to  consult  and  ponder  its  teachings,  how  in- 
dispensable does  the  old  Book  seem!  How  do  house- 
holds get  on  in  which  it  is  never  opened;  in  which 
the  twent37-third  Psalm  is  never  read  nor  sung;  in 
which  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  as  though  it  were 
written  in  an  unknown  tongue;  in  which  St.  Paul's 
immortal  chapter  on  love  and  his  immortal  chapter 
on  the  resurrection  and  the  incomparable  section  in 
his  Epistle  to  the  Romans  in  which  he  demonstrates 
the  glorious  deliverance  all  believers  in  Christ  have 
from  the  law,  are  never  permitted  to  quicken  the 
soul;  in  which  the  apocalyptic  vision  of  unutterable 
glory,  which  John  saw  at  Patmos,  never  unfolds  its 
splendors;  in  which  the  unrivaled  majesty  of  the  Book 
of  Job  and  the  fathomless  wisdom  of  the  Book  of 
Proverbs  lie  sealed  and  neglected  from  year  to  year; 
in  which  the  discourses  in  the  upper  chamber  —  so 
unlike  all  other  discourses  ever  delivered  —  and  that 
wonderful  intercessory  prayer  that  must  stand  out 
by  itself  alone  through  all  the  ages,  are  counted  as 
naught;  in  which  there  is  no  familiarity  with  the 
names  and  characters  of  apostles  and  prophets  and 
martyrs,  the  holy  men  and  the  sainted  women  of 
old;  how,  let  it  be  asked  again,  do  these  households 
get  on;  and  how  do  the}'  bear  their  burdens,  and 
how  do  they  meet  their  disappointments,  and  how 
do  they  find  the  comfort  thej'  need  when  dark  shad- 
ows fall  and  circles  break  and  dear,  sweet  voices 
are  hushed? 

It  is  a  beautiful  tribute  which  Mrs.  Hemans  pays  to 
the  influence  of  the  Bible  in  the  home: 


THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  HOME  217 

What  household  thoughts  around  thee,  as  their  shrine, 

Cling  reverently!     Of  anxious  looks  beguiled, 

My  mother's  eyes  upon  thy  page  divine 

Were  daily  bent;  her  accents,  gravely  mild, 

Breathed  out  thy  love;  whilst  I,  a  dreamy  child, 

On  breeze-like  fancies  wandered  oft  away, 

To  some  lone  tuft  of  gleaming  spring-flowers  wild, 

Some  fresh- discovered  nook  for  woodland  play, 

Some  secret  nest;  yet  would  the  solemn  word. 

At  times,  with  kindlings  of  young  wonder  heard, 

Fall  on  my  wakened  spirit,  there  to  be 

A  seed  not  lost;  for  which  in  darker  years, 

O  Book  of  Heaven!  I  pour  with  grateful  tears 

Heart-blessings  on  thy  holy  dead,  and  thee. 

3.  In  the  t/ih'd  ^lace,  the  Bible  in  the  home, 
faithfully  and  reverently  studied,  is  the  best  safe- 
guard of  the  moral  -purity  of  the  home. 

In  making  this  statement  am  I  not  striking  far  over 
into  a  territory  wliich  needs  to  be  cultivated?  Is  not 
this  thought  of  what  will  best  keep  our  homes  clean 
and  sweet  a  suitable  climax  to  all  that  has  gone  be- 
fore? For,  quite  independent  of  all  other  objects  to 
be  gained,  is  it  not  time  that  something  substantial  be 
done  to  deepen  the  public  sense  of  the  inviolability 
and  sacredness  of  our  domestic  life?  With  secret  in- 
roads opened  from  every  quarter  against  the  welfare 
of  the  home;  with  the  demand  for  divorces  multiply- 
ing; with  parents  losing  control  over  their  children, 
and  licentiousness  creeping  into  our  domestic  and 
social  life  to  poison  and  destroy,  in  so  many  guises; 
with  men  who  are  known  to  have  been  untrue  to 
their   own    obligations,  and  to  have    broken    up  the 


218  THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  HOME 

homes  of  their  neighbors,  petted  and  honored  in 
clubs  and  in  business  and  political  circles,  and  heart- 
ily welcomed  into  fastidious  societ}'-,  as  though  the 
most  flagrant  violation  of  the  seventh  command- 
ment were  a  mere  passing  misdemeanor,  to  be  waived 
into  forgetfulness,  —  is  there  not  a  call  very  imperative 
for  a  higher  conception  and  a  diviner  influence  and 
a  holier  restraint  to  enter  into  the  economy  of  all  our 
homes?  When  the  bonds  of  husband  and  wife  can 
be  snapped  asunder  like  strands  of  tow,  and  hearth- 
stones are  no  longer  sacred  to  the  pledges  of  a  pure 
and  faithful  life,  and  the  practices  of  Mormons  are 
followed  without  any  such  pretense  of  justification  as 
the  Mormons  feel  obliged  to  ofi'er  to  the  world,  surely 
something  effective  must  be  done  to  reverse  these 
corrupt  tendencies. 

What  better  than  the  laws  —  what,  indeed,  half  so 
good  as  the  laws  and  the  ordinances  and  the  pre- 
cepts and  the  uncompromising  principles  of  the 
Word  of  God?  Men  and  women  and  children  do 
sometimes  break  through  all  restraint,  and  run  off 
into  wild  prodigal  ways;  but  it  will  not  be  an  easy 
thing  nor  will  it  be  a  common  thing  to  become  rec- 
reant to  virtue  and  sink  down  into  rioting  and  crime, 
if  the  home  in  which  one  is  brought  up,  or  has  his 
daily  life,  is  saturated  with  the  spirit  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  and  it  is  a  customary  thing  to  ponder  on 
the  truths  and  duties  taught  us  in   revelation. 

All  these  statements  and  suggestions  come  to  focus 
in  this  practical  counsel:     Give  the  Bible  the  place 


THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  HOME  219 

it  ought  to  occupy  in  yowx  homes.  Enthrone  it 
in  power.  Let  not  the  daily  newspaper  nor  the 
popular  magazine  nor  the  most  eminent  standard 
author  come  between  you  and  the  daily  reading  of 
God's  Word. 

Some  of  you,  I  doubt  not,  have  precious  memor- 
ies of  homes  where  the  Bible  was  a  reverenced  and 
studied  book.  You  can  hear  the  tones  of  the  father's 
voice  as  he  read  in  the  morning,  and  recall  the 
awfulness  with  which  the  old  prophetic  periods  were 
clothed,  or  the  delight  with  which  the  precious  prom- 
ise fell  upon  your  ear.  You  can  see  a  beloved  mother 
garnering  strength  and  courage  and  consolation  day 
by  day  from  the  psalms  and  beatitudes.  You  know 
the  words  which  were  taught  you  then  have  clung  to 
your  memorj',  and  will  be  part  and  parcel  of  you 
through  all  eternity.  Now,  by  all  that  is  sacred  in 
these  recollections,  by  all  the  love  you  bear  your  lit- 
tle ones,  by  all  the  terrors  of  the  judgment  before 
which  we  must  all  appear  and  meet  the  record  of 
our  lives,  I  beseech  you  to  be  faithful  in  your  own 
homes,  faithful  to  God  and  to  those  whom  God  has 
committed  to  your  care. 

It  will  soon  be  too  late.  When  these  children 
have  grown  up  and  gone  out  into  their  life-work,  let 
it  not  be  theirs  to  say:  "I  might  have  been  made 
familiar  with  the  Bible  and  its  blessed  teachings; 
and  through  the  influence  of  truths  thus  learned 
might  perhaps  have  been  led  into  an  assured  hope 
of  eternal  life  in  Christ ;  but  my  parents  were  not  faith- 


220  THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  HOME 

ful,  and  the  Book  divine  had  no  honored  place  in 
the  economy  of  my  early  home."  Nor  give  them 
occasion  to  go  on  and  say  further:  "Pains  were 
taken  that  I  might  know  how  to  dance  well,  to  dress 
well,  to  buy  and  sell,  to  travel,  and  that  I  might  be 
duly  impressed  with  the  need  of  self-reliance  and 
energy  and  foresight;  but  the  Word  of  God  was  left 
out  of  the  influences  to  which  I  was  daily  subjected. 
Sabbaths  with  their  sacred  privileges  came  and  went; 
evening  succeeded  evening;  childhood  slipped  awa}^ 
then  youth  passed  into  early  maturity,  and  the  free- 
dom of  dependent  years  gave  place  to  the  cares  and 
burdens  of  responsible  life;  yet  the  Bible  was  not 
opened  before  me,  and  I  was  not  taught  at  home  to 
revere  its  teachings  and  be  guided  by  its  precepts." 
Do  not  give  your  children  occasion  to  rise  up  here- 
after and  say  that. 

You  may  not  be  able  to  leave  your  children  wealth 
or  the  inheritance  of  a  great  name  or  eminent 
social  advantages;  but  you  can  leave  them  the  results 
of  fidelity  and  precious  memories  of  devotion  to  the 
holy  task  of  trying  to  make  them  know  what  God 
says  to  us  in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  and  what 
He  wants  us  to  believe  and  to  do  and  to  be. 


CHRISTIANITY    IN    THE    LIGHT    OF  THE 
PARLIAMENT  OF  RELIGIONS. 

And  in  none  other  is  there  salvation,  for  neither  ts  there 
any  other  name  under  heaven,  that  is  given  among 
men,  whereby  lue  must  be  saved.     Acts.  4:  12. 

Quite  likely  it  will  always  be  a  question  in  the 
minds  of  some  whether  it  was  wise  or  not  to  attempt 
to  hold  a  parliament  of  religions.  But  whatever 
conclusions  may  be  reached  concerning  the  scheme 
in  its  original  inception,  and  whatever  its  influence 
may  prove  to  be  on  subsequent  thought  and  life,  the 
parliament  has  actually  been  convened,  and  its  pro- 
ceedings have  gone  into  historj'-,  to  be  examined  and 
estimated  like  any  other  occurrences  and  events  of 
the  past. 

But  now  that  it  is  over  and  there  has  been  time  for 
study  and  sober  reflection, it  is  only  natural  that  those 
of  us  who  have  turned  our  eyes  away  to  the  incar- 
nate Son  of  God  and  have  fixed  our  hopes  for  sal- 
vation on  the  crucified  Christ,  should, — not  in 
alarm,  nor  even  with  any  special  degree  of  solicitude, 
but  with  a  justifiable  interest  in  the  outcome  of  any 
comparisons  which  may  have  been  instituted  between 
the  religion  of  Jesus  and  any  other  religions  to  which 
men  adhere,  —  ask  after  the  bearing  of  this  unique 

gathering  on  our  own  faith. 

221 


222  THE  PARLIAMENT  OF  RELIGIONS 

In  the  light,  then,  of  this  parliament  of  religions, 
how  fares  it  with  our  Christianit}^  and  how  does  our 
Christianity  look  to  us  after  having  been  subjected  to 
this  series  of  tests?  Does  the  sufering  Saviour  still 
seem  to  be  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world,  and  the  one  ground  of  reconciliation  to  God? 

The  answers  to  this  question  are  manifold. 

In  general  it  may  be  said  that  Christianity  emerges 
from  this  wide  review  of  the  religions  of  the  world  as 
Daniel  came  out  of  the  den  of  lions,  not  only  "with 
no  manner  of  hurt"  upon  it,  but  freshly  indorsed 
and  accredited  to  mankind  as  the  one  religion  through 
which  our  race  is  to  be  saved  and  the  kingdom  of 
God  is  to  be  set  up  on  the  earth.  Never  did  Chris- 
tianity appear  to  me  to  be  so  large,  —  so  large  on  the 
God-ward  side  and  so  large  on  the  man-ward  side  — 
to  hold  in  it  so  much  truth  and  love  and  saving  power, 
and  to  be  so  manifestly  a  divine  system,  as  when  it 
was  placed  there  side  by  side  with  Buddhism  and 
Brahminism  and  Confucianism  and  Mohammedanism 
and  Parseeism,  and  the  story  of  its  claims  and  achieve- 
ments was  set  forth  by  such  men  as  Bishop  Dudley 
and  Professor  Wilkinson  and  Joseph  Cook  and  Post 
and  Washburn  and  Mills  and  Pentecost. 

More  especiall}'  it  may  be  said  that  Christianity 
was  shown  by  this  comparison  to  be  the  only  religion 
which  faces  all  the  facts  and  takes  in  all  the  con- 
ditions of  the  problem  which  religion  is  required  to 
solve. 

There  are  three  questions  which  must  be  answered, 


THE  PARLIAMENT  OF  RELIGIONS  223 

and  answered  intelligently  and  satisfactorily,  by  any 
system  of  faith  which  aspires  to  secure  and  hold  the 
confidence  of  men  who  have  come  into  a  full  reali- 
zation of  their  own  needs. 

The  first  concerns  God  —  His  existence,  His  per- 
sonality, His  character  and  His  relation  to  the  uni- 
verse and  to  law  and  to  life. 

The  second  concerns  man  — his  nature,  his  place 
in  the  world,  his  moral  condition,  his  privileges,  his 
duty  and  his  destiny. 

The  third  concerns  the  way  in  which  men  who 
have  sinned,  and  by  sinning  have  fallen  out  of  har- 
mony with  God,  may  be  restored  to  harmony  with 
God  and  the  joy  of  His  fellowship. 

Now  it  may  be  conceded  that  these  Oriental  re- 
ligions hold  in  them  the  idea  of  God.  Not  all  of 
them  hold  this  idea  in  the  same  form,  nor  with  the 
same  distinctness  of  conception ;  but  they  hold  it. 
For  the  idea  of  God  is  a  universal  idea.  Whether 
men  come  into  their  knowledge  of  God  through 
what  has  been  called  the  faculty  of  God  conscious- 
ness or  by  a  process  of  induction  or  by  the  witness- 
ing of  the  Divine  Spirit, it  does  not  especially  concern 
us  just  now  to  consider;  but  this  knowledge  is 
abroad  among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  Indeed,  this 
is  the  express  avowal  of  the  Scriptures.  Paul  bore 
testimony  to  this  fact  there  at  Lystra  when  he  said 
that  though  the  nations  in  the  generations  gone  by 
had  been  suffered  to  walk  in  their  own  ways,  yet 
God  had  not  left  Himself  without  witness  in  that   He 


224  THE  PARLIAMENT  OF  RELIGIONS 

had  done  good,  and  given  rain  from  heaven  and 
fruitful  seasons,  and  filled  the  hearts  of  men  with 
food  and  gladness.  He  bore  the  same  testimony  in 
those  remarkable  words  of  his  in  the  epistle  to  the 
Romans:  ''For  the  wrath  of  God  is  revealed  from 
heaven  against  all  ungodliness  and  unrighteousness 
of  men,  who  hold  down  the  truth  in  unrighteousness; 
because  that  which  may  be  known  of  God  is  manifest 
in  them ;  for  God  manifested  it  unto  them.  For  the 
invisible  things  of  Him  since  the  creation  of  the  world 
are  clearly  seen,  being  perceived  through  the  things 
that  are  made,even  His  everlasting  power  and  divinity ; 
that  they  may  be  without  excuse."  On  the  basis  of  our 
own  sacred  writings,  these  adherents  of  the  ethnic 
faith  may  come  to  us  and  say:  "Inasmuch  as  we 
are  creatures  made  in  the  image  of  God,  and  are  liv- 
ing our  lives  here  in  this  world  of  God,  you  must 
concede  to  us  the  instincts  of  religion  and  the  capac- 
ity for  religion  and  the  possibilitj^  of  our  possessing 
some  knowledge,  even  though  it  be  very  imperfect 
and  vague,  of  God  both  as  Creator  and  Father." 
But  it  is  needless  to  say  herein  this  presence,  though 
doubtless  there  are  places  where  it  will  have  to  be 
said  over  and  over  again,  that  the  conception  of 
God,  especially  in  the  higher  and  more  tender  re- 
lations in  which  He  has  revealed  Himself  to  us  in 
His  Word  and  in  the  life  and  character  of  His  Son, 
which  was  entertained  by  these  representatives  of  the 
dominant  religions  of  China  and  Japan  and  India  and 
Arabia  falls  far    below    the    requirements    and    aspi- 


THE  PARLIAMENT  OF  RELIGIONS  225 

rations  of  the  soul.  The  well  defined  personality, 
the  exalted  holiness,  the  condescending  love, the  sweet 
brooding  care  with  which  the  disciples  of  Jesus  have 
become  accustomed  to  associate  the  name  of  God  are 
wanting;  or  if  not  altogether,  yet  largely  wanting. 

In  the  Oriental  religions,  as  opened  out  in  the 
parliament,  there  was  also  a  clear  acknowledgment 
of  some  sort  of  very  sad  derangement  in  the  condition 
of  mankind.  But  there  was  a  disposition,  so  marked 
as  to  be  noticeable  all  through  the  proceedings,  to 
fight  shy  of  calling  this  derangement  by  the  ugly 
name  of  "sin."  One  of  these  brilliantly  attired  rep- 
resentatives who  spoke  in  behalf  of  "mild  Hinduism" 
ventured  on  one  occasion  to  use  the  word  "sin;"  but 
he  did  it  to  say:  "It  is  a  sin  to  call  a  man  a  sinner." 
This  was  one  of  the  grounds  of  affiliation  between 
these  Orientals  and  our  Liberal  Christians.  Neither 
of  them  has  much  stomach  for  a  word  which  implies 
guilt  and  condemnation  and  holds  every  human  soul 
in  the  awful  grip  of  a  violated  law.  "Unintentional 
stumbling,"  "imperfection  in  development,"  "in- 
cidents connected  with  growth,"  "short-sighted- 
ness," "natural  mistakes"  are  the  phrases  which 
suit  them  a  great  deal  better  than  this  old  harsh  word 
"sin." 

This  is  one  of  the  tendencies  of  the  time  — to  tone 
down  the  stress  on  sin  and  to  call  it  something  else 
than  sin.  These  Orientals  fell  in  with  the  popular 
currents,  —  with  the  currents  which  are  set  in  motion 
by  our  ethical-culture  societies  and  our  easy-method 


226  THE  PARLIAMENT  OF  RELIGIONS 

reformers  and  our  milk-and-water  liberalism,  and 
like  our  own  quacks  they  tried  to  show  that  the  dis- 
ease with  which  humanity  is  affected  is  not  so  organic 
and  fatal  as  some  would  make  us  think  by  calling  it 
by  another  and  a  softer  name.  But  this  malady  is 
sin.  This  disability  is  sin.  This  sad  derangement 
of  human  life  as  witnessed  all  over  the  world,  and 
witnessed  to  a  degree  which  is  unutterably  mournful 
in  lands  where  the  Gospel  has  not  done  its  work,  is 
a  derangement  which  is  due  to  sin.  No  man  has 
uttered  the  last  word  which  is  to  be  said  concerning 
the  moral  and  spiritual  condition  of  the  race  till  he 
has  uttered  this  word  sin. 

These  men  of  the  Oriental  faiths  come  to  us  and 
tell  us  they  know  God,  — know  Him  just  as  well  as 
Christians  know  Him.  Very  well  then.  That  fixes 
guilt.  That  justifies  the  charge  that  all  men  are  un- 
der condemnation  and  are  verily  guilt}'  before  God. 
This  is  exactly  Paul's  ground.  Men  everywhere  are 
"without  excuse-'  —  are  justly  held  under  condem- 
nation —  because  men  everywhere  have  some  knowl- 
edge of  God.  Just  in  the  ratio,  therefore,  in  which 
these  disciples  of  other  systems  made  it  clear  that  they 
have  some  correct  knowledge  of  God  they  made  it 
clear  that  they  are  sinners  and  are  justly  held  respon- 
sible for  the  transgression  of  the  law. 

But  here  comes  in  the  further  inquir}^,  and  it  is 
an  inquiry  on  which  it  is  simply  impossible  to  place 
too  much  emphasis:  How  is  a  man  who  has  some 
knowledge  of    God  and    wishes   to   have   more,  but 


THE  PARLIAMENT  OF  RELIGIONS  2'11 

who  is  conscious, whatever  others  may  tell  him,  that  he 
is  a  sinner  because  he  has  broken  the  laws  of  God,  — 
to  find  his  way  into  terms  of  peace  with  God  and  be 
able  to  stand  there  face  to  face  with  God  and  feel 
that  in  the  highest  sense  with  which  the  words  can 
be  freighted  God  is  his  Father  and  he  is  God's  child? 
Must  it  be  bj'  the  long  process  of  incarnations  and  re- 
incarnations? Must  it  be  by  the  dead  lift  of  a  strug- 
ling  will?  Must  it  be  by  a  series  —  nobody  knows 
how  near  to  endless  —  of  penances  and  good  works? 
How  is  Zaccheus  to  come  into  the  new  and  higher  fel- 
lowship which  his  soul  suddenly  craves?  How  is 
the  woman  at  the  well  to  put  off  the  old,  miserable, 
grimy  life  and  to  put  on  the  new  life  of  righteous- 
ness? How  is  the  thief  on  the  cross  to  find  his  way 
all  at  once  through  the  gates  of  Paradise?  How  may 
John  Newton  roll  off  the  heavy  burden  of  his  wicked 
past,  and  go  on  glad  and  radiant  in  the  consciousness 
that  his  name  is  in  the  book  of  life?  How  may  John 
Bunyan  secure  the  courage  and  help  he  needs  to  turn 
square  about  and  walk  that  immortal  pilgrimage  of 
his  to  the  celestial  city?  How  may  any  soul  any- 
where get  up  out  of  its  sins  into  the  favor  and  fellow- 
ship of  God?  What  answer  has  Buddhism?  What 
answer  has  Brahminism  ?  What,  Confucianism? 
What,  Mohammedanism?  What,  Parseeism?  Is  there 
no  answer  which  these  religions  can  give?  Is  there 
no  forgiveness  with  God?  Must  the  poor  publican 
stand  afar  off  and  beat  his  breast  and  cry  in  vain  for 
God  to  be  merciful  to  him  a  sinner?    Is  there  no  im- 


228  THE  PARLIAMENT  OF  RELIGIONS 

mediate  relief,  no  sweet  peace,  no  uplift  right  here 
and  now  into  the  joys  and  triumphs  of  the  endless 
life  for  Zaccheus  and  the  woman  at  the  well  and  the 
thief  on  the  cross  and  John  Newton  and  John  Bun- 
yan?  But  what  answer  has  Christianity?  Chris- 
tianity has  this  answer,  —  Christ.  Christ  there  on  Cal- 
vary, bearing  the  sins  of  the  sinner  in  his  own  body 
and  dying  that  those  who  are  afar  off  may  be  made 
nigh  through  His  blood,  that  those  who  are  alienated 
in  their  minds  and  hearts  may  be  restored  to  alle- 
giance, and  that  those  who  are  under  condemnation 
may  be  taken  out  from  their  condemnation  and  given 
a  standing  in  righteousness^  He  is  our  peace.  There 
is  therefore  now  no  condemnation  to  them  who  are  in 
Christ.  By  the  simple  act  of  faith  in  the  crucified 
Christ  the  whole  outlook  is  changed  at  once.  The 
sinner  becomes  God's  true  child. 

That  the  comparative  value  of  the  Oriental  faiths 
for  saving  sinners  and  bringing  them  over  into  har- 
mony with  God,  is  not  here  put  too  low,  ma}'  be  seen 
by  bringing  forward  the  testimonj'  of  a  single  wit- 
ness whose  competency  to  speak  on  such  a  subject 
will  not  be  called  in  question.  This  is  the  eminent 
Monier-Williams.  There  are  few  men  now  living, 
and  in  all  probability  few  men  have  ever  lived, better 
qualified  to  pronounce  upon  the  comparative  merits 
of  the  ethnic  religions  and  of  Christianity. 

There  is  the  more  significance  to  be  attached 
to  the  judgment  to  which   this   man   has  finally  ar- 


THE  PaRLIAMEMT  of  RELIGIONS  229 

rived,  because,  at  the  beginning,  he  was  ver}^ 
strongly  inclined  to  favor  the  non-Christian  religions. 
In  his  "Origin  and  Growth  of  Religions"  Mtiller 
made  very  clear  what  was  the  trend  of  his  think- 
ing on  the  subject.  When  Monier-Williams  began  to 
investigate  Hinduism  and  Brahminism,  he  was,  it 
would  not  be  too  much  to  say,  sharply  prejudiced 
in  their  favor.  The  discovery  of  brilliant  flashes  of 
thought  and  expressions  of  eager  desire  for  better 
things  amid  the  general  darkness  greatly  quickened 
his  admiration.  Now  he  franklyconfesses  his  mistak  e, 
and  denounces  "the  flabby,  jelly-fish  toleration  which 
refuses  to  see  and  acknowledge  the  decided  superiority 
of  Christianity  to  all  these  other  religions."  At  the 
anniversary  of  a  missionary  society  in  London  he 
said:  "Go,  in  your  Master's  name;  go  forth  into 
all  the  world;  after  studying  all  the  false  religions, 
fearlessly  proclaim  to  suffering  humanity  the  plain, 
the  unchangeable,  the  eternal  facts  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ,  —  nay,  I  might  almost  say,  the  stubborn,  the 
unyielding,  the  inexorable  facts  of  the  Gospel.  Let 
it  be  absolutely  clear  that  Christianity  can  not,  must 
not,  be  watered  down  to  suit  the  palates  of  Hindu, 
Parsi,  Buddhist,  Confucianist  or  Mohammedan. 
Whosoever  wishes  to  pass  from  the  false  religion  to 
the  true,  can  never  hope  to  do  so  by  the  rickety 
planks  of  compromise.  He  must  leap  the  gulf  in 
faith,  and  the  living  Christ  will  spread  his  everlast- 
ing arms  beneath,  and  land  him  safe  on  the  eternal 
rock.''''      On     addressing     the  British   and   Foreign 


230  THE  PARLIAMENT  OF  RELIGIONS 

Bible  Society,  he  gave  unqualified  endorsement  to 
Christianity,  in  language  as  strong.  After  charac- 
terizing the  Veda  and  other  sacred  books,  he  went 
on  to  affirm:  "They  all  say  salvation  must  be  pur- 
chased, be  bought  with  a  price;  the  sole  price,  the 
sole  purchase  money,  must  be  our  own  works  and 
deservings.  Our  own  Holy  Bible,  our  Sacred  Book 
of  the  East,  is  from  beginning  to  end  a  protest  against 
this  doctrine.  Good  works  are  indeed  enjoined,  but 
they  are  only  the  outcome  of  a  grateful  heart,  only  a 
thank-offering,  the  fruits  of  faith.  They  are  never 
the  ransom  money  of  the  true  disciples  of  Christ. 
,  .  Let  us  teach  Hindus,  Buddhists,  Mohamme- 
dans that  there  is  only  one  Sacred  Book  of  the  East 
that  can  be  their  mainstay  in  that  awful  hour  when 
they  shall  pass  into  the  unseen  world.  It  is  the  Sa- 
cred Book  which  contains  that  faithful  saying  worthy 
to  be  received  of  all  men,  women  and  children,  not 
merely  of  us  Christians,  but  of  all  men,  women  and 
children  everywhere,  — 'Christ  Jesus  came  into  the 
world  to  save  sinners.'" 

On  the  strength  of  testimony  like  this  may  it  not 
be  affirmed,  —  must  it  not  be  affirmed  —  with  new 
emphasis  that  it  is  Jesus  Christ  alone  who  saves  sin- 
ners? But  how  willing  He  is  to  save!  How  prompt! 
How  thorough,  too,  in  His  salvation ! 

Thus  Christianity  faces  all  the  facts  and  takes  in 
all  the  conditions  of  the  problem  which  religion  is 
required  to  solve.  It  makes  God  known  in  the  at- 
tractiveness of  His  Fatherhood  as  He  is  not  known 


THE  PARLIAMENT  OF  RELIGIONS  231 

outside  the  circle  of  Christian  revelation  and  instruc- 
tion. It  discloses  man  to  himself  so  that  he  sees  and 
feels  what  his  real  and  crying  needs  are.  Having 
shown  men  where  they  are  and  what  they  are,  Chris- 
tianity opens  to  them  a  way  of  escape  from  sin  and  of 
return  to  the  Father.  Christianity  through  its  cruci- 
fied Christ  saves  sinners.  It  saves  them  at  once,  and 
it  saves  them  unto  the  uttermost.  If  any  of  these 
other  religions,  oriental  or  ethical  or  liberal,  which 
had  any  word  to  say  on  the  platform  of  the  parlia- 
ment, has  any  method  by  which  a  sinner  can  be 
saved,  and  saved  at  once,  and  saved  unto  the  utter- 
most, great  pains  must  have  been  taken  to  keep  the 
secret. 

Christianity,  \  to  consider  the  matter  for  a  little 
from  another  point  of  observation,  as  studied  in  the 
light  of  the  parliament  of  religions  and  looked  at 
in  the  whole  range  of  its  influence  and  power,  has 
made  it  evident  that  it  stands  at  the  head  not  only, 
but  at  the  head  by  a  vast  intervening  space,  of  all 
the  religions  of  which  we  have  any  knowledge  in 
the  regenerating  energy  with  which  it  works  at  the 
heart  of  humanity. 

A  distinguished  German  writer  has  said  that  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Christian  era  there  were  three  great 
and  distinct  ends  to  be  gained  in  order  to  bring  soci- 
ety into  harmony  with  itself  and  put  all  conditions  at 
their  best.  The  first  was  to  overcome  race  preju- 
dices and  distinctions,  and  lead  all  nations  and  kin- 
dreds and  tribes  and  tongues  to  feel  that  they  were 


232  THE  PARLIAMENT  OF  RELIGIONS 

of  one  blood.  The  second  was  to  overcome  class 
prejudices  and  distinctions  and  bring  the  high  and 
the  low,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  into  a  mutual  recog- 
nition and  fellowship.  The  third  was  to  overcome 
sex  prejudices  and  distinctions,  and  elevate  woman 
into  an  equality  of  privilege  with  man,  so  that  both 
might  advance  hand  in  hand.  This  was  a  large 
scheme,  — large  and  beneficent. 

But  singularly  enough,  so  this  writer  goes  on  to 
show,  the  Apostle  Paul  was  able  to  condense  this 
whole  program  of  moral  reform  and  progress  into 
a  couple  of  verses  in  two  of  his  letters.  Speaking 
in  his  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  of  the  way  in  which 
faith  in  Christ  lifts  all  souls  into  a  common  sonship  to 
God,  he  says:  "There  can  be  neither  Jew  nor 
Greek,  there  can  be  neither  bond  nor  free,  there  can 
be  no  male  and  female;  for  ye  are  all  one  in  Christ 
Jesus."  Urging  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Colossians  all 
followers  of  Jesus  to  walk  worthy  of  their  new  crea- 
tion in  the  image  of  God, he  uses  this  similar  language : 
"Where  there  can  not  be  Greek  and  Jew,  circum- 
cision, and  uncircumcision,  barbarian,  Scythian, 
bondman,  freeman;  but  Christ  is  all  and  in  all." 
Here  we  have  it  then, — race  distinction  and  preju- 
dice—  Greek  and  Jew,  barbarian  and  Scythian  — 
swept  away  and  lost  in  the  love  of  Christ;  class  dis- 
tinction and  prejudice  —  neither  bond  nor  free  — 
swept  away  and  lost  in  the  love  of  Christ;  sex  dis- 
tinction and  prejudice  —  no  male  and  female  —  swept 
away  and  lost  in  the  love  of  Christ. 


THE  PARLIAMENT  OF  RELIGIONS  233 

These  were  the  objective  points  toward  which 
Christianity  was  set  at  the  very  beginning.  It  was 
to  save  men  through  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus;  but  through  saved  men  it  was  to  inaugurate  a 
condition  of  real  brotherhood,  and  unite  heart  to 
heart  and  home  to  home  and  community  to  com- 
munity and  nation  to  nation  and  race  to  race  in  a 
way  to  foretoken  and  condition  the  ushering  in  of 
the  New  Jerusalem. 

These  are  the  lines  along  which  our  Christianity 
has  been  moving  since  the  Day  of  Pentecost.  Un- 
der the  influence  of  the  truth  and  spirit  of  Christian- 
ity the  nations  of  the  earth  have  been  drawing  closer 
and  closer  together,  and  they  were  never  so  bound 
up  in  the  sense  and  obligation  of  unity  as  they  are 
at  this  hour.  His  fetters  have  fallen  from  the  slave, 
and  wherever  Christianity  is  permitted  to  bear  sway 
there  is  no  bondman  to  curse  the  earth  with  the  sweat 
of  his  unrequited  toil.  Woman  has  come  to  her 
estate  of  larger  liberty  and  freely  granted  opportu- 
nity, and  life  is  sweeter.  Much  remains  to  be  done. 
As  yet  only  faint  beams  of  the  millennial  dawn  are 
visible.  There  are  horrible  wrongs  to  be  righted. 
There  are  injustices  which  cry  to  heaven  for  redress. 
The  poor  and  the  ignorant  and  the  wayward  and  the 
vicious  and  the  criminal  are  multitudinous.  For 
good  men  there  is  no  earthly  rest  in  sight. 

Meanwhile  how  is  it  with  these  oriental  religions? 
What  have  their  adherents  been  doing?  What  have 
they  been  doing  in  the   sphere   of  art  and    science? 


234  THE  PARLIAMENT  OF  RELIGIONS 

What  have  they  been  doing  in  the  sphere  of  home 
and  social  life  and  good  government?  What  have 
they  been  doing  for  woman?  What,  to  overcome 
caste?  What,  to  promote  social  purity  and  truth- 
speaking  and  honesty  in  the  transactions  of  business? 
What,  to  displace  superstition  with  intelligence  and 
to  elevate  the  common  and  oppressed  people  to  a 
higher  plane  of  life?  What  have  they  done  to  reform 
abuses  and  to  improve  schools  and  to  introduce  new 
ideas  into  the  minds  of  their  people  and  to  kindle 
new  and  higher  aspirations  in  all  hearts?  Let  every 
ex'cellence  and  every  achievement  claimed  for  these 
ethnic  religions  by  their  adherents  or  apologists  be 
granted,  and  still  the  question  recurs:  What  have 
these  religions  done  along  the  lines  here  indicated? 
Especially  what  have  they  done  in  comparison  with 
the  triumphs  of  Christianity? 

Once  more  we  may  summon  one  of  our  previous 
witnesses  to  bear  his  testimonj'.  In  speaking  of 
Brahmanism,  as  he  might,  indeed,  speak  of  these 
other  ethnic  faiths,  Monier-Williams  says:  "The 
present  characteristics  of  Brahminism  are  poverty, 
ignorance  and  superstition.  Whatever  profound 
thought  lay  about  the  roots  of  Hinduism,  it  held  and 
still  holds  the  280,000,000  of  India  in  the  bondage 
of  degradation,  cruelty  and  immoralitj'."  If  the 
testimony  of  competent  witnesses  is  of  any  value  this 
would  seem  to  settle  the  question  of  the  amount  of 
moral  power  to  be  found  in  oriental  religions. 

Some  of  these  religions  get  credit  for  merits  which 


THE  BARLIAMENT  OF  RELIGIONS  335 

are  really  not  their  own.  For  when  set  down  by 
their  side,  and  allowed  a  little  time  for  doing  its 
work,  Christianity  is  always  found  to  have  communi- 
cated some  of  its  ideas  and  some  of  its  influences  to 
them.  Movements  among  the  adherents  of  Hindu- 
ism, like  that  which  was  represented  by  Mohur  Roy 
and  Chunder  Sen  or  that  which  is  now  represented 
by  Mozoomdar,  derive  a  large  part  of  their  signifi- 
cance and  force  from  the  ethical  and  spiritual  ele- 
ments imported  into -them  from  Christianity.  The 
best  conception  found  in  the  creed  of  the  Somajes, 
and  the  worthiest  ends  toward  which  they  encourage 
men  to  struggle  are  conceptions  and  ends  which  they 
came  to  know  through  Christianity.  Measured  by 
its  moral  force  and  influence  there  is  no  religion  like 
Christianity. 

This  view  of  Christianity,  if  it  be  the  right  view, 
makes  quick  work  of  the  claim  that  the  Faith  of  Jesus 
is  only  one  of  many  faiths,  and  is  no  more  entitled 
to  a  superior  rank  in  the  reverent  regard  of  mankind 
than  any  other  well  articulated  s^-stem  of  belief. 
Christianity  is  not  one  of  many  faiths;  it  is  the  one 
Faith.  It  is  a  fine  thing  to  talk  about  and  to  grow 
sentimental  over;  but  there  is  no  "brotherhood  of 
religions."  There  is  a  brotherhood  in  natural  son- 
ship;  for  all  alike  are  made  in  the  image  of  God. 
There  is  a  brotherhood  of  dependence ;  for  in  Him  we 
all  of  us  live  and  move  and  have  our  being.  There 
is  a  brotherhood  of  need;  for  we  are  members  one  of 
another,  and  no  man  liveth  unto  himself  and  no  man 


236  THE  PARLIAMENT  OF  RELIGIONS 

dieth   unto  himself.     There  is  a  brotherhood  of  con- 
demnation; for  all  have   sinned   and   come    short  of 
the  glory  of  God.     There  is  a  brotherhood  of  radiant 
hope   and    possibility;  for  whosoever  will  may  enter 
in   and   become   an   heir,  joint  with  Jesus   Christ,  to 
the  everlasting  inheritance.     But  in  the  sense  that  all 
religions  are  alike  of  divine  origin,  and   are    equally 
suited  to  the  needs  of  man,  and   equally  valuable   in 
the  aid   they  render,  there  is  no  brotherhood  of  re- 
ligions.     Our  Christianity  in  the  revelation  it   makes 
of  the    personality  and  light  and  love  of  God,  and  in 
its  methods  of  delivering  from  the  guilt  and  bondage 
and    corruption   of  sin,  and  in  the  guidance  it  yields 
and    the   aid    it  affords  for  the  living  of  a  right  life, 
has  no  mate.     It  stands  out  by  itself    alone,  immeas- 
urably superior  and  glorious  beyond  comparison.     It 
is  Jesus    Christ   who  is  the  light  of  the  world.      It  is 
Jesus    Christ  who  is  the  restorer  of  lost  souls.      It  is 
Jesus  Christ  who  puts  our  human  hand  in    the    hand 
of  the  Father.     It  is  on  the  religion  of  Jesus    Christ 
that  the  hopes  of  humanity  rest. 


THE    DIVINE    INTEREST    PERSONAL    TO 
EACH  OF  US. 

fV/iO  loved  me  and  gave  himself  for  me.      Gal.  2:20, 
Now  Jesus   loved  Martha,  and  her   sister,   and  Lazarus. 
John  11:  5, 

These  two  passages  unite  in  setting  forth  the  same 
great  and  precious  fact,  though  the}^  do  it  from  op- 
posite points  of  view.  In  the  first  passage  we  see  the 
Apostle  individualizing  the  love  which  was  shown 
by  God  in  the  gift  of  Christ  to  a  lost  world,  and  ap- 
propriating it  to  himself:  "Who  loved  me."  In  the 
second  passage  we  see  Jesus,  who  is  the  Son  of  God, 
standing  here  and  pouring  out  His  love  through  in- 
dividual channels  upon  individual  hearts:  "Now  Jesus 
loved  Martha,  and  her  sister,  and  Lazarus."  Hence 
a  double  justification  of  our  one  theme,  which  is 
The  Divine  Interest  Personal  to  Each  of  Us. 

This  truth  of  the  individualizing  of  God's  interest 
in  us  in  such  way  that  His  love  is  made  personal  to 
each  human  soul  is  a  large  one.  The  sweep  of  it,  the 
significance  of  it  and  the  power  of  it  are  very  much 
more  than  v^'e  are  wont  to  think. 

Guizot,  in  the  opening  chapter  of  his  History  of 
Civilization,  though  he  does  not  stay  to  discuss  it, 
pauses  long  enough  to  raise  the  question  whether  so- 
ciety exists  for  the  individual  or    the    individual   for 

237 


238     THE  DIVINE  INTEREST  PERSONAL  TO  EACH  OF  US 

society.  Without  any  hesitation  he  gives  in  his  ad- 
herence to  the  idea  that  society  is  merely  the  theater, 
the  occasion,  the  motive  and  excitement,  for  the  de- 
velopment of  the  individual.  Man  has  a  higher  des- 
tiny than  the  state.  There  is  more  in  man  than  can 
be  met  by  any  social  amelioration.  After  society 
has  done  all  it  is  possible  for  society  to  do  for  him, 
there  still  remain  those  higher  faculties  by  which  he 
elevates  himself  to  God,  to  a  future  life  and  to  the 
unknown    blessings  of  the  invisible    world. 

This  is  the  Christian  conception  as  against  the  mate- 
rialistic or  pessimistic  conception.  Man  is  the  unit  of 
value.  Man  is  the  end  in  view.  It  is  to  get  man  up  into 
a  higher  condition,  — all  his  faculties  developed  and 
cultivated  to  the  most  eminent  degree,  that  institutions 
exist.  The  state  is  for  man.  The  church  is  for 
man.  The  home  is  for  man.  Laws  and  customs 
and  economics  are  for  man.  Whatever  helps,  what- 
ever inspires,  whatever  societ}^  most  cherishes,  is  for 
man.  We  have  not  reached  the  ultimate  object  of 
orderly  government,  of  secure  and  comfortable  do- 
mestic arrangements,  of  schools  and  colleges,  of 
literature,  of  science,  of  art,  of  wholesome  industries 
encouraged  and  protected,  of  trade  and  commerce 
carried  on  successfully,  of  the  inventions  and  discov- 
eries with  which  the  world  is  enriched  from  time  to 
time,  till  we  have  found  it  in  man. 

It  looks  sometimes  as  though  states,  institu- 
tions customs,  laws  were  everything  and  man 
nothing.     How  men  toil  for  food  and  raiment!     But 


THE  DIVINE  INTEREST  PERSONAL  TO  EACH  OF  US    239 

food  and  raiment  are  for  men,  and  not  men  for  food 
and  raiment.  Men  toil  for  houses  and  lands;  how 
often,  indeed,  do  they  wear  themselves  out  in  amass- 
ing these  properties!  But  houses  and  lands  are  for 
men,  and  not  men  for  houses  and  lands. 

Emergencies  arise  when  human  lives,  the  most 
precious  of  them,  and  thousands  upon  thousands, 
have  to  be  sacrificed  to  save  the  state.  Some  of  the 
most  thrilling  pages  in  the  histories  of  the  nations,  — 
Greece,  Rome,  England,  Holland,  America,  are 
those  in  which  are  recorded  the  story  of  the  heroic 
sacrifices  made  by  brave  souls  to  save  the  common- 
wealth from  overthrow  and  ruin. 

But  the  ultimate  end  of  it  all  is  the  good  of  men. 
For  states,  with  all  that  is  valuable  in  them,  with  all 
their  restraining  and  directing  power,  are  for  men. 
We  talk  often  of  sacrifices  for  the  church,  and  quite 
likely  we  sometimes  make  the  impression  that  the 
church  is  of  more  consequence  than  the  individual; 
but  the  church  again  is  for  men. 

But  this  is  not  the  final  truth.  It  is  not  merely 
men  in  the  mass  —  mankind  —  as  against  the  agencies 
and  organizations  by  which  the  rights  of  men  are 
guarded  and  their  welfare  is  promoted,  toward  which 
the  divine  interest  goes  out;  but  God  takes  men  and 
loves  them  and  aids  them  one  by  one.  He  individ- 
ualizes His  interest,  and  He  makes  His  regard  and 
His  watchfulness  personal  to  each  of  us.  Jesus  said 
not  only  '■'Our  Father"  but  "J^  Father."  God 
looks  down   upon    us    and   says  not  only  "My  chil- 


240  THE  DIVINE  INTEREST  PERSONAL  TO  EACH  OF  US 

dreri'''  but  "My  child.''''  How  nature  singles  out 
and  individualizes  things!  It  is  this  rose,  that  violet. 
The  Psalmist  had  the  same  notion  of  God  and  the 
stars:  "He  calleth  them  all  by  name."  The  prophet 
Isaiah  expresses  the  same  thought,  and  then  adds: 
"Not  one  faileth."  In  this  universe  there  is  nothing 
which  is  not  individualized  to  God. 

This  was  the  Apostle's  view  of  the  great  and  pre- 
cious salvation  of  Jesus  Christ.  There  are  not  want- 
ing passages  in  the  Bible  —  a  large  number  of  them 
—  in  which  the  love  of  God  as  shown  in  the  gift  of 
His  Son  to  die  on  the  cross  is  generalized  and  made 
to  include  the  entire  race.  "God  so  loved ///^  world.'''' 
The  love  of  God  is  exceeding  broad. 

There's  a  wideness  in  God's  mercy 
Like  the  wideness  of  the  sea. 

The  provision  He  has  made  for  our  redemption 
covers  all.  But  Paul  was  not  content  to  be  swallowed  up 
in  the  mass.  He  did  not  like  to  think  of  himself  as 
absorbed  in  the  aggregate  of  redeemed  souls  and 
having  no  more  individuality  in  the  regard  of  God 
than  the  trees  of  the  forest  have  in  the  vision  of  one 
who  looks  upon  them  from  the  height  of  some  distant 
mountain-top.  So  he  made  the  whole  transaction 
intensel}' personal  to  himself.  "For  I  through  the  law 
died  unto  the  law, that  I  might  live  unto  God.  I  have 
been  crucified  with  Christ;  yet  I  live;  and  yet  no 
longer  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me;  and  that  life  which 
I  now  live  in  the  flesh  I  live  in  faith,  the  faith  which 


THE  DIVINE  INTEREST  PERSONAL  TO  EACH  OF  US      241 

is  in  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  me  and  gave   Him- 
self for  me."     It  is  all  personal. 

It  is  like  a  mother  with  her  children.  For  the  pur- 
pose of  general  statement  she  groups  them  all  under 
the  sweetly  sheltering  word — "mine."  Still  in  her 
thought  and  heart  they  are  all  individualized.  Her 
experience  with  each  is  a  distinct  experience.  The 
story  of  each  as  it  is  treasured  up  in  her  memory  is  a 
distinct  story.  To  speak  one  name  in  that  circle  is 
to  open  one  volume.  To  speak  another  name  is  to 
open  another  volume.  From  first  born  to  last  born 
there  will  be  some  reason  why  the  mother's  heart 
goes  out  to  each  with  a  peculiar    interest. 

The  Apostle  knew  Christ  died  for  all.  He  did  not 
claim  for  himself  anj'thing  more  than  others  who  be- 
lieved in  Christ  might  claim.  Each  of  the  Galatian 
or  Epheaian  or  Corinthian  Christians  to  whom  he 
wrote  might  appropriate  his  language,  if  he  wished, 
and  use  it  with  the  same  fitness.  Peter  might  say: 
"Who  loved  me  and  gave  Himself  for  me^  John 
might  say:  "Who  loved  me  and  gave  Himself  for 
mcy  There  never  has  been  a  genuine  disciple  — 
there  never  will  be  one  —  who  might  not  take  these 
words  in  his  mouth  and  utter  them  with  the  stress  of 
an  absolute  assurance:  "Who  loved  me  and  gave 
Himself  for  me^  Just  as  a  man  stands  and  sees  the 
light  of  the  sun  falling  straight  in  on  him,  though  the 
world  all  about  him  is  flooded  with  the  same  light 
and  warmth,  and  says:  "It  is  for  7«er,"  —  so  a  dis- 
ciple may  stand  in  front  of  the  cross  and  jubilantly 
exclaim:    "It  is  for  w^." 


242  THE  DIVINE  INTEREST  PERSONAL    TO  EACH  OF  US 

Not  too  much  can  the  fact  be  emphasized  that  the 
regard  of  God  is  not  for  an  abstraction  called  hu- 
manity, nor  for  a  concrete  mass;  it  is  for  persons, 
individuals.  God  loves  humanity;  but  He  reaches 
the  whole  by  reaching  the  constituent  parts.  He 
keeps  the  heavens  studded  with  stars  and  the  uni- 
verse aflame  with  light  by  kindling  individual  stars. 
He  rears  vast  forests  by  planting  and  nourishing  in- 
dividual trees.  He  makes  landscapes  rich  with 
wealth  of  grass  and  flower  and  shrub  and  climbing 
vine  by  having  a  thought  for  each  spire  of  grass 
and  each  plant  and  each  unfolding  bud  and  each 
swelling  leaf.  The  landscape  is  the  aggregate  of  all 
the  individual  objects  composing  it.  But  there  is  not 
a  tiny  rootlet  which  is  not  fed  by  itself.  There  is 
not  a  bursting  germ  of  vegetation  which  does  not 
have  its  own  drop  of  dew  or  rain ;  nor  a  flower  with- 
out its  own  beam  of  light. 

If  now  we  take  this  general  statement  of  the  way 
in  which  God  individualizes  His  regard  and  makes  it 
personal  to  each  one  of  us,  we  shall  find  it  helpful  in 
many  particulars.  We  shall  find  it  helpful  —  some- 
times as  a  restraint,  but  helpful  always  in  the  fact 
that  it  brings  God  very  near  to  our  lives. 

I.  There  is  comfort  in  the  thought  that  through 
this  individualizing  of  His  regard  and  making  it 
■personal  to  each,  God  suits  His  grace  to  the  par- 
ticular temperament  and  needs  of  men. 

No  two  persons  are  exactly  alike.  There  are  du- 
plicate elements  in    men,  and    in  some    particulars  a 


THE  DIVINE  INTEREST  PERSONAL  TO  EACH  OF  US    243 

good  portrait  of  one  would  be  sure  to  have  enough 
in  it  of  family  likeness  to  be  a  good  portrait  of  all. 
But  there  are  points  of  difference,  and  these  points  of 
difference  are  so  marked  that  they  always  have  to  be 
taken  into  account.  There  are  odd  people.  There 
are  thin-skinned  people.  There  are  egotistic  peo- 
ple;  and  there  are  over-modest  people.  There  are 
quick  people;  and  there  are  slow  people.  There  are 
people  who  suffer  long  and  are  kind;  and  there  are 
people  who  are  all  the  time  on  the  watch  for  some- 
thing to  offend  them.  There  are  people  with  whom 
one  can  be  frank  and  open ;  and  there  are  people  be- 
fore whom  one  has  to  walk  as  on  eggs.  Temper- 
aments are  multitudinous  in  their  variety;  and  habit 
often  confirms  and  strengthens  what  was  a  peculiarity 
of  original  endowment. 

It  would  take  a  great  many  volumes  to  hold  all 
that  has  been  written  about  the  unlikeness  of  the 
Bethany  sisters.  Of  course  Lazarus  differed  from 
each  of  them ;  for  who  ever  knew  a  brother  who 
didn't  differ  from  his  sisters?  But  the  unlikeness  be- 
tween Mary  and  Martha  was  very  sharp.  Mary  was 
of  the  meditative  type;  Martha  was  of  the  active  and 
stirring  sort.  Mary  thought  nothing  was  of  so  much 
importance  and  so  rewarding,  as  to  sit,  when  there 
was  opportunity,  at  the  feet  of  Jesus  and  learn  of 
Him  and  drink  in  His  spirit.  Martha  had  a  con- 
straining sense  of  things  to  be  done;  she  was  prompt 
and  full  of  activity;  and  she  wanted  everybody  else 
to  be    moving   and   doing  what   seemed  to  her  a  full 


24i      THE  DIVINE  INTEREST  PERSONAL  TO  EA  CH  OF  US 

share  of  the  work  which  pressed.  Mar}^  was  calm. 
She  had  the  repose  of  soul  characteristic  of  one  who 
has  entered  into  the  secret  of  the  Lord  and  rests  in 
peace.  Martha  was  nervous,  impatient,  distracted. 
She  was  industrious;  she  was  careful;  she  was  eager 
to  lend  assistance;  but  her  life  was  more  on  the  sur- 
face; and  what  occupied  her  to  such  an  extent  she 
thought  ought  to  occupy  others.  "Lord,  dost  thou 
not  care  that  my  sister  did  leave  me  to  serve  alone?" 
She  was  cumbered  about  much  serving;  she  was  anx- 
ious and  troubled  about  many  thfngs;  and  she  com- 
plained because  she  did  not  have  the  aid  she  thought 
she  ought  to  have.  We  all  know  the  answer  to  her 
complaint.  "One  thing  is  needful;  Mary  hath  chosen 
the  good  part,  which  shall  not  be  taken  away  from 
her."  There  is  a  tone  of  rebuke  in  our  Lord's  re- 
ply—  this  must  be  admitted.  At  the  same  time  His 
words  are  not  so  much  words  of  rebuke  as  of  expla- 
nation and  tender  justification  of  the  conduct  of  her 
who  sat  at  His  feet  and  entered  into  such  profound 
sympathy  with  Him  in  His    character    and  purpose. 

But  the  unlikeness  of  each  to  the  other  was  no  bar 
to  the  love  of  Christ.  Martha  had  her  individuality. 
Mary  had  her  individuality.  From  all  we  can  dis- 
cover Lazarus  had  his  individuality;  yet  Jesus  loved 
them  all.  "He  loved  Martha,  and  her  sister,  and 
Lazarus." 

As  in  this  instance,  so  in  all  instances.  The  divine 
love  suits  itself  to  the  peculiarities  of  men  and  women. 
Men  often  have  constitutional  traits  which  are  exceed- 


THE  Dl  J  -IKE  LXTE  R  ES  7'  PER  SON AL  TO  EA  CH  OF  US      245 

ing]}'  disagreeable  and  which  make  it  very  hard  to 
get  on  with  them.  They  may  be  opinionated  or  fussy  or 
crabbed  or  effusive  to  a  trying  degree.  They  may 
have  glaring  faults,  and  reach  pitches  in  their  hobby- 
riding  and  in  their  personal  bearing  toward  others, 
which  make  them  intolerable  to  all  save  those  who 
are  obliged  to  bear  with  them.  But  God  knows  how, 
and  has  the  patience,  to  adapt  Himself  to  all  that  is 
singular  in  these  characters.  Like  a  brook  in  a 
mountain  district,  which  winds  in  and  out  among  the 
rocks  and  creeps  on  through  the  gnarled  roots  of  the 
obtruding  trees  and  dashes  at  a  leap  over  the  jutting 
ledges  and  makes  its  way,  now  in  silence  and  now 
in  song,  over  all  inequalities  of  surface  and  past  all 
obstructions,  to  the  sea,  God  can  press  in  past  all 
that  is  eccentric  in  a  man  and  get  by  all  the  sharp 
turns  in  his  make-up.  The  world  may  be  impatient 
with  us  for  our  peculiarities;  but  —  Godknoweth  our 
frame. 

11.  //  is  good  to  know  that  God  is  near  to  us,  and 
feels  a  -personal  interest  in  us,  in  the  work,  whatever 
it  may  be,  which  it  falls  to  our  lot  to  do. 

In  the  average  life  there  is  a  deal  of  work  which  is 
out-and-out  drudgery.  It  is  hard  and  wearisome 
and  often  repulsive.  In  the  school,  in  the  home,  in 
the  store  and  office  and  mill,  on  the  farm,  in  the 
mine,  at  sea,  there  are  services  to  be  performed 
which  nobod}'  would  undertake  were  there  not  neces- 
sity. It  taxes  nerves  and  offends  taste  and  crucifies 
the  flesh  to  do  these  things. 


24C     THE  DIVINE  INTEREST  PERSONAL  TO  EACH  OF  US 

How  much  of  this  work  falls  to  the  lot  of  mothers 
to  whose  wisdom  and  patience  is  committed  the  train- 
ing of  children!  How  much  to  clerks  and  appren- 
tices who  mean  to  know  their  business  from  top  to 
bottom  and  in  all  its  ins  and  outs! 

Then  outside  of  this,  when  nten  and  women  put 
their  hands  to  benevolent  tasks  and  reform  move- 
ments, and  try  to  make  individual  lives  better  and 
homes  better  and  cities  better  and  nations  better  and 
races  better,  how  much  there  is  to  anno}'^  and  weary 
and  discourage!  It  is  often  a  marvel  to  me  how 
leaders  and  lawgivers  like  Moses  and  prophets  like 
Jeremiah,  how  the  Ezras  and  Nehemiahs,  how  the 
Daniels  and  Pauls,  how  the  Luthers  and  Wesleys, 
how  the  Frys  and  Howards,  how  the  Wilberforces 
and  Garrisons  manage  to  hold  fast  to  their  aims 
from  the  moment  when  their  eyes  are  lirst  opened  to 
what  is  to  be  done  and  their  hearts  are  kindled  into 
enthusiasm,  to  the  final  hour  when  they  fold  their 
hands  and  fall  asleep. 

In  all  these  spheres, in  one's  own  personal  work  and 
in  the  larger  services  which  are  undertaken  for  the 
elevation  of  humanity,  there  is  alwaj^s  much  to 
quench  zeal,  to  overburden  mind  and  body  and  to 
make  one  feel  at  times,  at  least,  whether  the  energy 
and  courage  one  may  possess  are  a  match  for  the 
work  required. 

But  when  we  think  of  ourselves  as  individuals  to- 
ward whom  the  currents  of  the  individual  love  of 
God  are  always  flowing  like   incoming    tides  up    the 


THE  DIVINE  INTEREST  PERSONAL  TO  EACH  OF  US      247 

mouths  of  brooks,  —  of  ourselves  as  never  getting 
beyond  the  sweep  of  His  individual  care, never  doing 
a  thing  in  such  obscurity  that  He  does  not  see  us  and 
take  accurate  note  of  the  spirit  in  which  we  toil  and 
the  secret  aims  we  cherish,  never  bearing  a  burden 
that  He  does  not  know  its  exact  weight  and  how 
hard  it  presses,  never  misjudged,  never  wrongly  esti- 
mated, never  put  at  disadvantage  by  the  greed  and 
ambition  and  thoughtlessness  of  men,  without  Him 
by  our  side  to  re-judge  and  re-estimate  and  rectify  all, 
if  not  altogether  for  time, yet  for  the  record  of  eternity, 
—  it  makes  all  the  difference  in  the  world.  Drudgery 
is  never  again  so  trying.  Hardness  is  never  again 
so  hard.  Obscurity  is  never  again  so  difficult  to  en- 
dure. "He  loves  me.  He  is  interested  in  m}^  inter- 
ests. If  my  interest  moves  along  in  the  line  of  duty 
and  helpful  service,  I  can  be  patient  and  bear  my 
burdens."  So  the  soul  reasons  so  soon  as  it  becomes 
conscious  of  this  individualizing  of  the  divine  re- 
gard. 

This  IS  the  open  secret  of  the  uncomplaining  fidel- 
ity with  which  a  great  many  saintly  souls  keep  about 
their  tasks.  They  do  not  feel  themselves  to  be  mere 
indistinguishable  parts  of  a  stupendous  whole  on  which 
God  looks  only  in  a  kind  of  all-inclusive  and  general 
way.  The  astronomer  lifts  his  telescope  and  surveys 
the  distant  star,  but  he  is  able  to  distinguish  little 
save  in  dim  and  uncertain  outline.  God  turns  His 
eye  to  the  earth,  and  He  discerns  separate  souls,  — 
individuals,  persons,  and  He  follows  them  with  an  in- 


248      THE  DIVINE  INTEREST  PERSONAL  TO  EACH  OF  US 

dividual,  personal  love  and  a  sympathy  tenderly 
suited  to  their  individual  needs.  The  maid  scrub- 
bing the  floor  of  the  kitchen;  the  street-sweeper;  the 
sailor  amid  storms  on  the  high  seas;  the  soldier  on 
the  frontier  guarding  the  interest  of  an  advancing 
civilization;  the  miner  down  in  the  depths  of  the 
earth  with  his  candle  and  pick;  the  farmer  toiling 
under  the  heat  of  the  noon-day  sun;  the  mechanic 
at  his  bench ;  the  engineer  with  eye  thrust  sharply 
forward  and  hand  on  lever,  guiding  his  long  train 
with  its  precious  freight  through  the  darkness;  the 
teacher  trying  to  impart  knowledge  and  quicken  as- 
piration in  dull  minds,  it  maj^  be;  the  reformer  who 
is  sounding  a  note  for  which  the  age  is  not  yet  ripe; 
the  missionary  confronting  the  ignorance  and  super- 
stition and  vice  of  the  great  pagan  world,  — each  and 
all  of  them  may  be  sure  that  if  there  is  any  desire  for 
His  presence  God  is  at  hand,  taking  the  measure  of 
the  work  and  noting  all  that  is  irksome  and  dis- 
agreeable about  it  and  bestowing  grace  and  strength 
sufficient  for  what  is  to  be  done.  Some  things  could 
not  be  done  at  all  without  this  consciousness;  but 
there  is  no  work  which  would  not  be  easier  could  we 
only  think  of  God  as  near  to  us  while  doing  it. 

It  is  the  mother  and  her  children  over  again.  They 
are  grown  up  and  are  no  longer  about  her.  They 
make  no  more  a  group  which  she  can  take  in  with  a 
single  sweep  of  the  eye.  One  is  in  the  sunny  South; 
one  is  yonder  amongst  the  mines  of  Colorado;  one 
is  back  on  the    hills  of    New  England;  one    is  far 


THE  DIVINE  INTEREST  PERSONAL  TO  EACH  OF  US    249 

away  across  the  waters  in  India.  Their  occupations 
differ;  and  some  are  engaged  in  dignified  and  some 
in  lowly  services.  Some  are  winning  wealth  and 
golden  opinions, and  some  are  still,  as  they  were  at 
the  outset,  very  near  the  bottom.  But  wherever  they 
are  and  whatever  they  are  doing,  the  mother-heart 
goes  straight  out  to  each  one  of  them.  What  the 
mother  does  imperfectly,  God  does  perfectly.  He 
takes  in  all ;  but  He  takes  in  each  —  each  separate 
soul ;  and  He  has  a  sympathetic  interest  in  each. 

IH.  This  Jact  of  a  divine  interest^  -personal  to 
each  of  its,  when  realized^  has  a  marked  value  in 
restraining  from  sin. 

Nothing  is  more  common  than  for  men  to  try  to 
persuade  themselves,  when  they  are  tempted  to  do 
wrong,  that  they  are  lost  in  the  mass.  Or,  if  there  is 
anything  more  common,  it  is  the  idea  that  when  one 
is  associated  with  others  in  delinquencies  or  vices 
or  crimes,  there  is  not  much  likelihood  that  the  con- 
demnation will  be  personal.  Men  sin  with  their 
nation  or  their  party  or  their  guild  or  their  church, 
or  they  sin  under  the  shelter  of  the  current  customs 
and  habits  of  their  times;  and  they  fancy  that  some- 
how God  does  not  hold  each  individual  of  the  num- 
ber to  such  sharp  responsibility  as  He  would  if  there 
were  only  one  in  place  of  many.  Each  imagines 
himself  to  be  screened  in  some  measure  behind  the 
others.  That  there  is  a  whole  company  of  wrong- 
doers distributes  or  palliates  the  guilt,  so  it  is  con- 
ceived, and  men  sin  with   all  the  more  confidence. 


250     THE  DIVINE  INTEREST  PERSONAL  TO  EACH  OF  US 

Lynching  parties  and  wild  mobs  proceed  on  this  as- 
sumption. 

There  may  be  prudential  reasons, — reasons,  that 
is,  drawn  from  considerations  of  business  standing 
and  of  domestic  standing  and  regard  for  the  opinion 
of  social  circles, as  well  as  thought  of  self-respect  and 
pride,  why  one  who  wishes  to  drink  or  throw  dice, 
might  desire  to  enter  a  saloon  or  a  gambling  resort 
alone,  or  without  the  knowledge  of  his  intimate 
friends. 

But  ordinarily  there  will  be  less  compunction  and 
less  sense  of  guilt  when  two  or  more  go  together. 
It  is  not  an  uncommon  thing,  even  in  such  places  as 
the  cars,  to  hear  3^oung  men  talking  freely  to  each 
other  about  their  immoralities;  and  they  make  light 
of  such  doings  on  the  ground  that  there  are  so  many 
others  who  are  addicted  to  the  same  practices.  An 
alderman  does  not  think  he  is  so  far  out  of  the  way 
in  selling  his  vote  when  he  knows  there  are  fifteen  or 
twenty  others  who  have  gone  at  the  same  price. 
The  clerk  steals,  and  the  cashier  and  his  assistant 
conspire  and  embezzle,  and  the  treasurer  runs  off 
with  all  the  convertible  assets  of  the  corporation, 
with  small  compunction  because  so  man}'  others  be- 
fore them  have  betrayed  the  same  trusts  and  commit- 
ted the  same  offenses.  Demonstrate  that  a  majority 
of  some  legislature  has  been  smirched  with  bribery, 
and  the  most  corrupt  of  them  all  will  hold  his  head 
as  high  as  the  cleanest  gentleman  in  the  land.  Why 
do  merchants  adulterate   their   goods  with  so  little 


THE  DIVINE  INTEREST  PERSONAL  TO  EACH  OF  US    251 

sense  of  dishonesty  and  shame?  Because  so  many 
do  it.  Why  is  the  quality  of  so  many  articles  which 
are  offered  for  sale  misrepresented  to  the  customers? 
Because  it  is  the  habit  of  the  trade.  Ask  a  man, 
otherwise  held  to  be  decent  and  respectable,  on  what 
ground  he  justifies  the  carrying  on  of  elections  by 
tricks  and  frauds  and  lies, and  his  ready  reply  will  be 
that  candidates  for  office  are  not  expected  to  be  over- 
scrupulous. There  is  no  sense  of  guilt.  It  is  be- 
cause men  lump  themselves  in  with  the  mass,  and 
foster  the  notion  that  somehow  the  criminality  of  a 
bad  act  decreases  just  in  the  ratio  of  the  increase  of 
the  number  who  are  concerned  in  committing  the 
bad  act. 

But  this  individuality  of  interest  with  which  God 
regards  men  follows  them  along  all  these  paths  of 
vice  and  crime  and  down  into  all  their  depths  of 
degradation.  There  may  be  ten  or  a  thousand  or  a 
million  who  plot  evil  together  and  who  join  hands 
in  villain}^  and  injustice;  but  God's  eye  is  on  each  of 
the  entire  company,  and  each  in  His  view  is  singled 
out  from  all  the  rest.  He  follows  each,  and  notes 
every  evil  thought  and  every  wrong  step  and  every 
bit  of  crookedness  to  which  head  and  hand  are  lent. 
A  hundred  men  with  masked  faces  and  the  spirit  of 
blackness  in  their  hearts  may  be  engaged  in  hanging  a 
Negro  to  the  limb  of  a  tree  or  the  beam  of  a  bridge 
in  Mississippi  or  Ohio,  but  each  is  none  the  less  a 
murderer.  Go  where  he  will  the  brand  of  Cain  is 
on  his  forehead. 


252  THE  DIVINE  INTEREST  PERSONAL    TO  EACH  OF  US 

IV.  The  same  view  ts  greatly  serviceable  when 
we  contemplate  the  disappointments  and  sorrows  and 
bitter  experiences  which  fall  to  our  lot. 

When  we  think  of  these  disappointments  and  sor- 
rows and  bitter  experiences  as  coming  right  from  God 
to  us  individually,  we  are  much  more  likely  to  learn 
the  lessons  they  are  meant  to  teach. 

Here  again  we  ward  off  the  thought,  and  so  defeat 
very  often  the  purpose  of  our.  heavenly  Father,  by 
massing  ourselves  with  the  great  bod}^  of  our  fellows. 
We  say  that  sooner  or  later  suffering  is  sure  to  come 
to  all,  and  that  we  are  under  a  common  dispensation 
of  general  laws  which  take  no  note  of  individuals 
and  make  no  exception  in  anybody's  favor.  The 
mother  says:  "Yes,  I  have  lost  my  child;  and  my 
heart  is  wrung  to  agony;  but  how  many  mothers 
there  are  everywhere  weeping  for  their  little  ones 
because  they  are  notl"  The  son  or  the  daughter 
says:  "Yes,  my  mother  is  dead,  and  life  is  not  now 
and  never  can  be  again  what  it  was  once,  —  what  it 
was  when  morning  by  morning  her  face  beamed 
upon  me  and  her  voice  was  music;  but  how  many 
there  are  suffering  from  a  like  bereavement!"  Or 
there  is  an  accident,  a  railway  collision,  a  drowning, 
a  falling  from  a  scaffold,  a  plunge  to  death  down  the 
shaft  of  an  elevator,  a  premature  discharge  of  a  gun, 
a  run-away;  and  it  is  all  grouped  under  the  head 
of  natural  causes  or  the  chances  to  which  all  are  sub- 
ject. There  is  no  effort  to  go  behind  the  element  of 
nature  and  see  what  the  divine  intent  may  be  for   us 


THE  DIVINE  INTEREST  PERSONAL  TO  EACH  OF  US     253 

and  how  it  may  become  a  matter  intensely  personal 
to  our  souls.  We  miss  the  meaning  of  it  and  we 
miss  the  blessing  of  it,  for  the  reason  that  we  choose 
to  think  of  ourselves  as  belonging  to  a  great  and  in- 
distinguishable multitude  called  humanity  or  as  hav- 
ing our  place  in  a  system  which  is  under  the  control 
of  inexorable  laws,  and  not  as  individuals,  distinct 
from  all  others,  and  in  whom  God  takes  a  distinct 
personal  interest. 

Our  Lord  took  great  pains  to  impress  this  view  of 
the  individualizing  of  God's  regard  for  human  souls 
in  His  teaching.  Not  a  sparrow  falls  without  the 
Father's  notice;  and  the  hairs  of  men's  heads  are 
numbered.  If  we  are  called  upon  to  endure  losses; 
if  we  are  checked  here  and  there  with  disappoint- 
ments; if  it  is  defeat  to-day  and  still  another  defeat 
to-morrow;  if  it  is  blackness  in  the  sky  from  year  to 
year  and  life  seems  all  overclouded  with  storms,  — 
we  may  be  sure  there  is  a  purpose  in  it  for  us.  He 
took  the  babe  out  of  the  mother's  arms,  not  only 
with  a  view  to  the  highest  good  of  the  child,  but  also 
that  He  might  teach  the  mother  some  lesson  in  the 
higher  tuitions  of  life.  He  took  the  mother  from 
the  open  fellowship  of  sons  and  daughters,  not  be- 
cause He  willingly  afRicts  and  not  alone  because  the 
mother  was  ripe  for  the  heavenly  ingathering,  but 
that  He  might  through  the  chastening  and  sanctifying 
influence  of  tears  and  the  uplift  of  holy  memories 
purify  the  hearts  of  those  left  behind.  God,  let  it  be 
said   again,  individualizes  us.     His  interest  in  us  is 


254    THE  DIVINE  INTEREST  PERSONAL  TO  EACH  OF  US 

direct  and  personal.  If  our  property  is  swept  away 
by  the  flames  or  our  earthl}'  hopes  are  crushed  or 
death  breaks  our  circles,  it  is  that  there  may  be 
clearer  vision  of  heavenly  realities  and  a  closer  walk 
with  Christ. 

The  hour  of  anguish  passes  by; 

But  in  the  spirit  there  remains 

The  outgrowth  of  the  agony, 

The  compensation  of  its  pain, 

In  meekness,  which  suspects  no  wrong. 

In  patience,  which  endures  control. 

In  faith,  which  makes  the  spirit  strong, 

In  peace  and  purity  of  soul. 

In  general,  then,  it  may  be  said  that  this  thought 
of  the  way  in  which  God  individualizes  His  regard 
for  us  is  one  to  give  us  much  comfort  and  strength  in 
our  Christian  lives.  We  are  not  lost  in  the  mass. 
We  are  not  overlooked  in  the  multitude.  A  man 
may  fill  but  a  very  small  place  in  this  great,  busy, 
bustling  world,  and  only  a  few  maj'  know  him;  but 
God's  regard  goes  out  to  him  and  enfolds  him.  A 
man  may  seem  to  himself  to  be  very  unworthy  of  the 
divine  thought,  and  in  reality  be  very  much  more 
unworthy  than  he  even  seems  to  himself  to  be;  but 
not  on  this  account  is  he  excluded  from  this  individ- 
ualized interest  of  God.  A  man  may  be  full  of  heart- 
ache and  sore  burdened  with  care,  and  cup  after  cup 
of  secret  sorrow  may  be  pressed  to  his  lips;  but  he 
never  has  a  need  nor  a  pang  which  escapes  God's 
eye,  — a  need  nor  a  pang  which  does  not  draw  out 
God's  sympathy.  "Who  loved  me  and  gave  Him- 
self for  7116.'''' 


THE  DIVINE  INTEREST  PERSONAL  TO  EACH  OF  US    255 

Of  any  one  who  can  say  this  as  Paul  said    it,  it  is 
as  Keble  sings: 

Thou  art  as  much  His  care  as  if  besides 
Nor  man  nor  angel  lived  in  heaven  or  earth; 
Thus  sunbeams  pour  alike  their  glorious  tide 
To  light  up  worlds,  or  wake  an  insect's  mirth; 
They  shine  and  shine  with  unexhausted  store. 
Thou  art  thy  Saviour's  choice  —  seek  no  more. 


BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD. 

Because  Christ  also  suffered  for  sins  once,  the  righteous  for 
the  unrighteous,  that  He  might  bring  us  to  God. 
I  Peter  3:  18. 

Our  thoughts  this  morning  are  to  gather  about  the 
very  practical  and  pressing  matter  of  Bringing  Men 
to  God. 

That  it  is  the  supreme  business  of  the  church  of 
Christ  to  do  the  work  of  Christ  will  be  generally  con- 
ceded. "Follow  Me"  is  an  injunction  which  applies 
not  alone  to  individual  believers,  but  to  bodies  of  be- 
lievers in  their  organized  capacity.  It  applies  also 
to  individual  believers  and  to  bodies  of  believers,  not 
only  as  respects  their  personal  faith  and  their  com- 
mon creeds,  but  as  respects  all  their  aims  and  activi- 
ties. Just  what  Christ  would  do  if  He  were  here 
once  more  —  a  visible  presence, possessing  all  the  in- 
fluence and  all  the  power  of  the  church  and  with  all 
the  opportunities  open  to  Him  which  are  open  to  the 
church  for  molding  the  thought  and  life  of  the 
world  —  the  church  itself  ought  to  do. 

What  the  work  of  Christ  is  the  words  before  us 
make  clear.  He  who  is  at  once  the  great  teacher 
and  the  divine  Redeemer  was  here  upon  the  earth 
to  bring  men  to  God.     That  was   the   outlook   and 

256 


BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD  2ol 

sweep  of  His  intent.  He  became  incarnate;  He 
spoke  His  word;  He  wrought  His  deed;  He  suffered 
in  the  garden  and  on  the  cross;  He  went  down 
into  the  grave,  and  rose  again  and  ascended  on  high, 
where  He  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for  us,  —  in 
order  to  restore  the  broken  loyalty  of  human  hearts  to 
the  eternal  and  beneficent  Father  of  us  all. 

This  is  the  large  and  all-inclusive  fact  touching 
Christ,  —  the  open  secret  of  Bethlehem  and  Calvary. 
About  other  points  there  may  be  debate.  This  ad- 
mits of  no  question.  From  first  to  last  and  all 
through,  the  eye  of  Christ  was  fixed  steadily  on  the 
rescuing  of  men.  This  is  His  own  explanation  of 
His  mission,  —  to  reach  and  rescue  men.  He  was 
here  to  pour  light  in  on  the  minds  of  men,  so  that 
they  could  have  some  adequate  understanding  of 
truth  and  duty.  He  was  here  to  break  the  fetters  of 
men  and  lift  their  burdens  of  guilt  from  human  hearts. 
He  was  here  to  open  a  path  along  which  the  wear}'-, 
wandering  feet  of  men  might  walk  into  light  and 
blessedness.  He  was  here  to  restore  to  men  their  lost 
communion  with  God  and  to  make  divine  things  real 
and  precious  to  the  soul.  If  a  man  believed  Christ 
and  followed  Christ,  that,  in  every  instance,  was 
what  came  of  it,  — he  found  himself  brought  to  God. 

With  a  distinctness  and  an  emphasis  not  to  be  mis- 
understood, precisely  this  is  declared  in  the  passage 
in  hand:  "Because  Christ  also  suffered  for  sins 
once,  the  righteous  for  the  unrighteous,  that  He 
might  bring  us  to  God.'''' 


258  BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD 

This  being  true,  and  so  evident  withal  as  to  shut 
out  the  need  of  any  discussion,  the  stress  of  interro- 
gation falls  on  ways  and  means.  How  may  this 
work  of  bringing  men  to  God  be  done?  With  what 
sort  of  arguments,  in  what  sort  of  temper,  through 
what  agencies,  methods,  appliances  may  believers 
and  bodies  of  believers  hope  to  be  most  successful 
in  taking  up  and  carrying  on  to  ultimate  complete- 
ness that  which  our  Lord  began  and  for  which  He 
lived  and  died? 

Proceeding  at  once  to  the  task  of  answering  the 
questions  — and  especially  the  main  question —  here 
propounded,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that 

I.  First  oj  all  there  must  be  a  profound  recogni- 
tion and  a  faithful  tise  oJ  the /acts  and  truths  which 
were  present  to  the  mitid  of  fesus,  and  which  moved 
Him  in  His  divine  mission. 

Sitting  at  His  feet  to  learn  what  was  the  central 
and  all-embracing  aim  of  Jesus,  we  must  also  sit  at 
His  feet  to  learn  what  facts  He  carried  along,  and 
what  truths  He  wielded  to  accomplish  His  aim.  It 
will  not  do  to  overlook  any  truth  which  He  considered 
significant.  It  will  not  do  to  pronounce  lightly  any 
truth  on  which  He  laid  accent.  It  will  not  do  to 
magnify  truths  which,  as  He  seems  to  have  judged, 
can  play  but  little  part  in  the  great  redemptive  pro- 
cess of  winning  and  purifying  and  upbuilding  souls. 
It  will  not  do  to  marshal  truths  in  such  an  order  that 
what  He  placed  first  is  last,  and  what  He  put  last  is 
first.     We  are  to  look  at  the  work  to  be    done    from 


BRIISfGING  MEN  TO  GOD  259 

His  standpoint  and  to  move  forward  under  His 
guidance.  Jesus  knew  the  Father;  He  knew  Him- 
self; He  knew  the  ages  past;  He  knew  the  ages  to 
come;  He  knew  the  moral  and  spiritual  condition  of 
humanity;  He  knew  the  nature  and  the  perils  and  the 
possibilities  of  all  souls;  and  knowing  all,  He  knew 
exactly  what  was  needed  to  bring  men  into  accord 
with  God.  What  was  needed  He  used.  It  would 
be  a  strange  conceit  to  suppose  that  the  Son  of  God 
made  mistakes,  or  that  He  did  not  know  what  con- 
siderations to  press  as  being  best  adapted  to  secure 
His  divine  ends.  It  would  be  an  equally  strange 
conceit,  and  one  altogether  out  of  joint  with  any 
theory  possible  to  be  held  of  the  Son  of  God  as  a 
Saviour  for  all  men,  in  all  lands  and  in  all  ages,  to 
suppose  that  there  has  been  any  such  change  in  the 
essential  elements  of  human  nature  or  in  modern 
environments,  that  the  facts  on  which  He  based  His 
appeals  and  the  truths  He  urged  are  now  and  hence- 
forth antiquated  and  inapplicable. 

As  the  Gospels  open  themselves  to  my  apprehen- 
sion, and  the  recorded  career  of  Him  who  was  the 
Light  of  the  world,  and  who  spake  as  never  man 
spake  becomes  luminous  and  distinct,  there  are  sev- 
eral large  facts  which  appear  and  reappear.  These 
facts  seem  to  have  been  always  latent  in  the  thought  of 
Jesus.  They  dominated  His  teaching.  He  used  them 
continually,  sometimes  in  one  form  and  sometimes  in 
another,  as  occasion  required,  and  with  this  pressed 
to  the  front  to-day  and  that  to-morrow,  to  show  men 


260  BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD 

their  true  relation  to  God  and  their  future  prospect 
under  the  sweep  of  violated  law  and  their  value  in 
the  Divine  estimation  and  their  possibilities  through 
the  exercise  of  faith  and  repentance,  and  to  persuade 
them  to  turn  from  folly  and  sin  and  become  the  chil- 
dren, sweet  and  loving  and  loyal,  of  the  Father. 

What  are  these  facts  ? 

I.  To  begin  with,  this  sad  and  awjul  one  that 
men  are  away  from  God. 

This  fact  underlies  all.  Jesus  Christ  came  into  the 
world  to  bring  men  to  God, because  men  had  wandered 
off  into  alienation  and  distance  from  God.  In  heart 
and  life  they  were  away  from  God.  .Jesus  never  lost 
sight  of  this  fact.  He  never  permitted  his  heart  to 
escape  the  burden  and  pressure  of  it.  Whether  di- 
rectly asserted  on  all  occasions  or  not,  man's  lost  con- 
dition was  always  and  everywhere  present  to  His 
thought,  the  assumption  on  which  His  life  and  His 
word  and  His  death  proceeded.  He  saw  men  away 
from  God  in  the  sense  that  they  were  morally  and 
spiritually  blind, and  did  not  know  how  nor  where  to 
find  Him.  He  saw  men  away  from  God  in  the  sense 
that  they  were  disinclined  to  find  Him,  and  were  do- 
ing what  they  could  to  shut  the  knowledge  and  will 
of  God  out  of  their  minds.  He  saw  men  away  from 
God  in  the  deeper  sense  still  that  they  had  broken 
the  Divine  law,  and  were  under  condemnation, 
with  no  power,  save  through  the  interposed  grace  of 
God,  to  escape  punishment;  and  with  no  time  nor 
place  for  the  momentous   transaction   save    the   here 


SRLVGING  MEN'  TO  GOD  261 

and  the  now.  If  men  claimed  to  be  in  accord  with 
God,  Jesus  held  up  before  them  the  Divine  standards 
touching  faith  and  love  and  prayer  and  patience  and 
purity  and  obedience,  and  showed  what  were  the  in- 
ward and  outward  reaches  of  these  requirements. 
Or  He  pointed  out  to  them  their  unbeliefs  and  their 
inconsistencies  and  delinquencies  and  gross  corrup- 
tions, and  they  were  quite  sure  to  retreat  abashed. 
Even  in  the  best,  like  the  young  man  who  had  kept 
the  commandments,  and  Nicodemus,  so  thoughtful 
and  circumspect  and  reputable,  there  was  some  lack 
which  indicated  more  than  a  mere  surface  dishar- 
mony with  God.  The  eye  of  Jesus  swept  the  circuit; 
He  took  in  those  of  high  degree,  and  those  of  low, 
men  of  culture,  men  of  wealth,  men  unlettered  and 
simple,  men  of  position  and  power;  but  what  He  saw 
everywhere  was  men  away  from  God.  He  saw  men 
poor  and  deaf  and  blind  and  miserable  ;  He  saw  them 
disheartened  and  faint  and  worn  and  weary;  He  saw 
them  in  bonds  to  evil  passions  and  lusts,  smiting  and 
crowding  each  other,  dead  to  righteousness,  alive  to 
iniquity  ;  but  it  was  all  reducible  to  this  one  formulary: 
Away  from  God. 

Jesus  felt  this.  It  was  a  burden  on  His  soul  and 
in  His  speech.  It  sobbed  into  expression  in  His  tears. 
It  imparted  the  tenderness  of  a  Divine  accent  to  His 
invitations.  It  lay  behind  all  His  pangs  and  agonies 
that  men  are  at  vast  and  dreary  distances  from  God. 

2.  Notwithstanding  their  ill-desert  and  unworthi- 
ness,  God  loves  men^  and  yearns  /or  their  return  to 


263  BRINGIMG  MEN  TO  GOD 

Him  with  the  meastcreless  interest  of  a  divine  affeC' 
tion. 

Never  has  the  love  of  God  for  men  had  such  ex- 
pression as  in  Jesus  Christ.  Never  has  the  love  of 
God  for  men  had  such  appreciation  and  magnifying 
as  by  Jesus  Christ.  It  was  atmosphere  to  His  life. 
It  informed  His  thought.  It  constrained  His  action. 
It  illuminated  His  speech.  It  overarched  all  His 
moods  like  a  resplendent  firmament.  It  was  the 
ground  on  which  He  stood  when  He  would  give 
heart  and  hope  to  men,  and  lift  them  up  into  self-re- 
spect and  a  realization  of  their  possibilities.  Men 
are  away  from  God  in  alienation  and  sin;  but  God 
loves  them,  loves  them  compassionately,  loves  them 
graciousl}',  loves  them  with  all  the  wealth  and  warmth 
of  the  great,  infinite  Heart. 

Men  sometimes  think  of  the  love  of  God  as  articu- 
lating itself  in  the  murmur  of  brooks  and  the  grace 
and  sweetness  of  flowers  and  the  softness  of  glowing 
skies  and  landscapes  radiant  with  every  form  of 
beauty;  and  they  say:  "Look  up  and  look  abroad 
and  see  how  the  regard  of  God  for  His  creatures  rip- 
ples out  into  smiles  over  all  the  face  of  nature."  Or 
they  advance  from  this  mere  sentimentalism  to  the 
thought  of  that  general  goodness  by  which  we  have 
been  made  capable  of  happiness,  and  through  which, 
in  our  own  individual  hearts  and  in  our  homes  and 
in  our  social  life,  we  receive  so  many  tokens  of  the 
divine  interest  in  our  welfare  and  enjoyment.  But 
to  what  heights  above,  to  what  depths  below  all    this 


BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD  263 

reaches  the  thought  of  Jesus!  "For  God  so  loved 
the  world  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish,  but 
have  everlasting  life.  For  God  sent  not  His  Son 
into  the  world  to  judge  the  world ;  but  that  the  world 
should  be  saved  through  Him."  That  is  love.  For 
it  is  love  for  men,  not  because  they  are  sweet  and 
lovable  and  may  fitly  be  approved  by  adding  to  their 
joy,  but  because  the}'  are  so  far  out  of  the  way,  and 
so  much  need  love,  and  only  through  the  extended 
hand  and  the  patience  and  the  brooding  care  and 
the  sanctifying  grace  of  love  can  be  made  sweet  and 
lovable. 

With  what  unwearied  repetition  and  through  what 
a  variety  of  memorable  parables  Jesus  exalted  and 
pressed  that  thought!  Men  might  be  as  lost  bits  of 
coin,  but  they  were  precious  still  and  there  was  One 
who  would  search  for  them  and  find  them,  if  possible. 
Men  might  be  as  lost  sheep,  but  there  was  One  who 
would  wind  His  way  through  the  dark  ravines  and 
climb  the  mountain  slopes  and  bring  them  back  re- 
joicing, if  only  they  would  let  Him.  Men  might  be 
as  prodigals,  afar  and  degraded  and  miserable,  but 
there  was  One  who  would  watch  for  them  and  be 
sure  to  see  them  while  yet  a  great  way  off,  and  run 
to  meet  them  and  give  them  joyful  welcome  on  their 
return.  Looked  at  in  the  grime  and  distortion  of 
their  sinfulness,  it  might  seem  impossible  for  God  to 
love  men.  But  Christ  stood  in  the  presence  of  all 
sorts  of  defilement  and  said:  "God  loves  still."  That 
is  the  climax  and  glory  of  love. 


264  BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD 

3.  //  is  only  through  ycsus  Christ  that  men  away 
Jrom  God  in  the  alienation  of  sin  find  their  way  back 
to  God. 

"I  am  the  Way  and  the  Truth  and  the  Life."  "No 
man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  Me."  "That 
whosoever  believeth  on  Him  should  not  perish." 

It  is  possible  and,  as  I  think,  needful,  —  needful 
because  fidelity  to  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  and  the 
interests  of  an  aggressive  Christianity  require  it,  — to 
go  further  and  say  that  Jesus  held  forth  the  fact  of 
salvation  through  Him  on  the  ground  that  He  came 
into  the  world  to  be  an   atoning  vicarious  sacrifice. 

It  is  claimed  in  some  quarters,  and  with  a  great 
deal  of  earnestness,  that  our  Lord  never  associated 
the  notion  of  sacrifice  with  His  sufferings,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  seemed  careful  to  avoid  expressions 
which  contained  sacrificial  allusions.  The  Gospels 
not  only  do  not  justify  this,  but  they  show  the  reverse 
to  be  the  fact.  Permitting  Himself  to  be  announced 
by  the  forerunner  as  "the  Lamb  of  God,who  taketh 
away  the  sin  of  the  world,"  He  set  the  seal  to  the 
announcement  with  His  own  declaration  that  "the 
Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to 
minister,  and  to  give  His  life  a  ransom  for  many.'''' 
More  and  more  as  the  end  drew  on,  when  all  was  to 
be  consummated  in  the  crucifixion,  did  Jesus  force 
that  thought  on  the  attention  of  those  about  Him. 
Say  nothing  of  passages  in  His  discourse  in  the 
upper  chamber,  of  His  strange  and  otherwise  unac- 
countable agony  in  the  garden,  —  nothing  of  His  con- 


BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD  265 

versation  with  the  disciples  after  the  resurrection; 
and  take  just  simply  the  language  employed  by  Jesus 
in  the  institution  of  the  Supper,  and  see  how  it  con- 
firms what  is  here  avowed  of  a  sacrificial  element  in 
His  teaching.  As  has  been  said,  this  was  "the  most 
important  and  solemn  of  all  the  occasions  on  winch 
our  Lord  ever  alluded  to  His  death."  In  this  instance 
"  He  did  so  in  terms  that  are  unequivocally  sacrificial, 
bringing  it  into  close  comparison  with  the  paschal 
sacrifice,  speaking  of  His  blood  as  shed  for  many  for 
the  remission  of  sins,  and  further  styling  it  the  blood 
of  the  new  covenant,  so  as  to  assimilate  it  to  that  sac- 
rificial blood  with  which  the  old  covenant  was  ratified 
and  inaugurated.  Indeed,  of  all  the  testimony  which 
has  been  borne  to  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement  in 
any  part  of  the  sacred  volume,  this  testimony  which 
is  conveyed  in  the  Lord's  Supper  is  the  most  import- 
ant; because  it  not  only  exhibits  the  doctrine  in  the 
clearest  light,  but  incorporates  it  with  the  highest 
exercise  of  religious  worship  and  perpetuates  the  re- 
membrance of  it  in  a  monumental  rite,  which  is  des- 
tined to  continue  throughout  all  ages  until  the  end  of 
the  world." 

These  are  the  facts  which  Christ  used.  Men  are 
away  from  God,  but  God  loves  them  still.  Men  are 
away  from  God,  and  may  come  back  to  God;  but  it 
is  only  through  the  light  and  the  atoning  merit  of 
Him  "  who  suffered  for  sins  once,  the  righteous  for  the 
unrighteous."  There  are  no  facts  with  which  to  dis- 
place these  facts.     There  are  no  truths  in  advance  of 


266  BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD 

these  truths.  There  are  no  arguments  which  can  do 
the  work,  in  the  long  run,  of  these  arguments. 
They  are  Christ's  own  arguments. 

It  is  said  not  unfrequently  of  late  that  there  is  a 
new  sense,  a  revived  sense  of  the  love  of  God  abroad ; 
and  that  men  are  returning  to  the  views  Jesus  enter- 
tained of  the  compassion  and  sympathy  of  the  Divine 
Father.  If  so,  well,  and  more  than  well.  But,  un- 
luckily,much  of  this  talk  as  it  falls  on  my  ear  shades 
off  into  a  sentimental  modification  of  the  fact,  on  the 
one  hand,  that  men  are  seriously  and  criminally  away 
from  God, and  of  the  fact,  on  the  other  hand,  that  there 
is  no  escape  from  the  guilt  and  pollution  and  dominion 
of  sin  save  through  faith  in  the  crucified  Christ. 

If  we  echo  the  voice  of  Jesus  we  shall  magnify  the 
love  of  God;  but  in  the  illumination  of  it  we  shall 
see  men  not  nearer  to  Him,  but  farther  away  in  guilt, 
and  we  shall  see  Jesus  with  His  pierced  hands  and 
His  pierced  side  as  the  One,  and  the  One  only,  who 
is  able  to  save  unto  the  uttermost  all  who  come  unto 
God  by  Him. 

II.  To  be  effective  in  bringing  men  to  God,  the 
spirit  oj  Christ  must  be  caught^  and  His  method 
largely  reprodticed. 

Spirit  and  method  are  not  one,  they  are  distinct 
ideas;  but  the  spirit  of  Jesus  had  so  much  to  do  in 
shaping  His  method,  and  His  method  was  so  illus- 
trative of  His  spirit  and  so  vital  to  the  free  outwork- 
ing of  it,  that  for  general  purposes  the  two  may  well 
be  grouped  together. 


BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD  267 

It  is  all  summed  up  in  the  single  sentence:  He 
went  about  doing  good.  That  was  the  spirit  that 
was  in  Him;  to  do  good;  and  His  way  was  to  do 
good  always  and  everywhere,  as  openings  presented 
themselves  or  could  be  made.  There  is  a  glimpse  of 
it  in  this  single  statement:  "And  Jesus  went  about 
all  Galilee,  teaching  in  their  synagogues  and  preach- 
ing the  gospel  of  the  kingdom  and  healing  all  man- 
ner of  sickness  and  all  manner  of  disease  among  the 
people."  It  was  doing  good  all  abroad  and  in  all 
sorts  of  ways. 

The  central  and  most  characteristic  element  in  the 
spirit  of  Jesus  was  self-sacrifice.  This  was  the  heart 
within  heart  of  His  being.  Originally  in  the  form  of 
God,  He  did  not  think  the  privilege  and  glory  of 
equality  with  God  something  to  be  tenaciously  clung 
to,  but  He  emptied  Himself  and  took  the  form  of  a 
servant.  Love  with  Him  was  self-denial  and  self- 
surrender,  and  He  loved  to  the  far  point  where  love 
is  ready  to  give  all  and  to  bear  all  for  the  sake  of 
others.  He  was  righteous,  but  He  saw  others  un- 
righteous and  helpless  through  their  unrighteousness, 
and  He  took  His  own  righteousness  and  laid  it  down 
as  a  bridge  over  which  men,  blind  and  crippled  and 
burdened  with  guilt,  might  walk  into  the  peace  and 
blessedness  of  the  divine  kingdom.  He  was  right- 
eous, but  He  was  willing  to  die,  if  through  His  death 
a  highway  might  be  cast  up  for  the  return  of  the  un- 
righteous to  the  favor  of  God.  "The  righteous  for 
the  unrighteous,  that  He  might  bring  us  to  God." 


268  BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD 

Out  of  this  came  the  loving  interest,  the  wealth  of 
patience,  the  tender  and  touching  persuasiveness 
which  were  in  Him,  and  the  readiness  to  go  all 
lengths  to  overcome  the  prejudices  of  men,  enlighten 
their  ignorance  and  restore  to  them  a  sense  of  the 
sweetness  of  knowing  and  serving  God.  How  He 
yearned  for  men!  How  easy  and  natural  it  was  for 
Him  to  take  His  place  beside  men  of  all  classes  and 
in  all  conditions,  and  to  assure  them  of  syijipathy  in 
all  their  distresses  and  disabilities  and  needs! 

The  eccentricities  of  men  did  not  disturb  Him. 
He  was  not  thrown  out  of  poise  because  Zaccheus 
chose  to  run  the  risk  of  making  himself  ridiculous  by 
climbing  a  tree  in  order  to  see  Him  as  He  passed. 
He  was  not  afraid  of  being  accused  of  boisterous 
fanaticism  because  poor  blind  Bartimeus,  the  way- 
side beggar,  in  the  intensity  of  his  zeal  strode  over 
all  the  proprieties  and  clamored  like  a  madman  for 
the  mercy  of  the  divine  Healer.  He  was  not  alarmed 
lest  somebody  should  speak  in  disparagement  of  His 
mission  and  call  it  small,  if  He  chose  to  give  gracious 
audience  to  the  solicitous  mothers  and  send  them 
away  with  His  benediction  resting  on  the  heads  of 
the  babes  they  bore  in  their  arms.  It  did  not  em- 
barrass Him  at  all  that  the  woman  to  whom  He  said: 
"God  is  a  spirit;  and  they  that  worship  Him  must 
worship  in  spirit  and  truth,"  was  a  disreputable 
woman.  He  did  not  start  up  and  say:  "Now  I  shall 
be  misjudged  b}'  this  Pharisee  whose  hospitality  I 
am  enjoj'ing,"  when  the   woman    who  was  a  sinner 


BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD  269 

brought  her  alabaster  box  of  ointment  with  which  to 
anoint  His  feet,  and  stood  behind  Him  weeping. 
"They  that  be  whole  need  not  a  physician."  He 
was  here  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost. 
Every  pulsation  of  His  divine  heart  was  in  line  with 
that  sublime  purpose.  The  spirit  of  self-sacrifice 
was  so  absolute  in  Him  and  over  Him,  His  interest 
in  men  was  so  deep  and  tender,  that,  no  matter  who 
it  was  nor  where  it  was,  He  helped  and  saved  if 
possible.  Traditions, current  methods  of  doing  things, 
fears  of  misapprehension  in  the  popular  mind  had 
no  influence  in  keeping  Him  back  from  reaching 
men. 

We  fall  often  to  discussing  whether  we  may  work 
in  this  way  or  that;  whether  it  is  dignified  and  or- 
derl}'  to  go  out  on  the  green  grass  of  the  park  and 
the  commons  and  unoccupied  lots,  and  stand  at  the 
street-corners,  to  herald  the  good  news  of  salvation 
for  all.  The  expediency  of  a  measure,  new  or  old, 
ordinary  or  extraordinary,  is  always  an  open  question. 
Men  have  a  right  to  ask  concerning  plans  already 
adopted  or  plans  suggested:  "Are  they  prudent  and 
promising?"  But  it  sometimes  looks  as  though  it 
were  a  matter  of  serious  doubt  in  the  minds  of  not  a 
few  whether  it  is  a  proper  thing  to  try  to  save  souls  un- 
less they  will  consent  to  be  saved  inside  the  four  walls  of 
some  dedicated  and,  quite  likely,  highl}'  decorated 
meeting  house.  There  are  thousands  and  thousands  of 
church-members  in  this  land  who  really  seem  to  think 
that  they  and  the  very  decorous  religion  which  they 


270  BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD 

have  espoused  are  somehow  compromised  by  open-air 
preaching  and  evangelistic  meetings  and  announce- 
ment of  services  in  the  newspapers  and  cards  and 
circulars  printed  and  scattered  like  autumn  leaves,  in- 
viting and  urging  people  to  the  house  of  prayer.  It 
is  not  denied  in  so  many  words  that  it  is  a  good  thing 
to  save  people ;  but  they  must  be  saved  at  just  such 
a  time  and  at  just  such  a  place  and  in  just  such  a 
way,  and,  unless  it  is  done  through  the  proxy  of 
some  subordinate  missionary  agency,  the}^  must  be 
just  such  people, —  very  nice  and  clean  and  cultivated. 
But  Jesus  never  permitted  considerations  of  this  sort 
to  have  any  weight  with  Him.  If  He  could  reach 
men  He  reached  them.  With  Jesus  the  place  was 
always  suitable,  and  the  men  and  women  before  Him, 
whatever  might  chance  to  be  their  class,  were  always 
suitable,  if  only  there  were  ears  attent  to  His  words 
and  souls  hungry  for  the  truth;  and  the  best  that  was 
in  Him  was  always  given  if  men  would  only  take  it. 
Jesus  never  kept  Himself  for  occasions,  and  He  never 
held  His  choicest  thoughts  in  reserve;  but  He  poured 
out  truth  as  fountains  pour  water  for  all  athirst. 
The  profoundest  word  ever  spoken  of  worship  was 
addressed  by  Jesus  to  one  listener.  Sunday  or  Mon- 
day, at  high  noon  or  midnight,  in  religious  assembly 
or  in  the  throng  and  stir  of  the  market  place  or 
along  the  dusty  thoroughfare  or  in  the  privacy  of 
domestic  retreats,  in  temples  made  with  hands  or 
out  in  the  great  temple  whose  dome  is  the  sky  and 
whose  lights  are  the  unquenchable  stars,  with  many 


BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD  271 

to  hear  or  only  few,  that  blessed  word  "come"  was 
always  on  His  lips, and  it  was  so  spoken  that  men  with 
an  ear  to  hear  caught  always  the  accent  of  a  heavenly 
love. 

It  is  only  through  this  spirit  of  Christ,  actuating 
us  in  all  our  methods  and  pushing  us  forward  into 
His  method  of  constant  watchfulness  and  of  direct 
and  personal  application  of  the  truth  as  often  as  there 
is  any  promise  of  usefulness,  that  we  shall  be  suc- 
cessful in  bringing  men  into  the  faith  of  our  Lord 
and  under  the  power  of  an  endless  life.  It  takes  a 
wisdom  born  of  this  spirit  to  bring  men  to  God  and 
make  them  His.  There  is  a  wisdom  of  statesman- 
ship. There  is  a  wisdom  of  buying  and  selling. 
There  is  a  wisdom  of  managing  mills.  There  is  a 
wisdom  of  sailing  ships.  There  is  a  wisdom  of  cul- 
tivating lands.  There  is  a  wisdom  of  building  houses 
and  bridges.  There  is  a  wisdom  of  conducting  edu- 
cational institutions  and  pushing  forward  moral  re- 
forms. There  is  a  wisdom  of  sweet  homes  and  of 
choice  and  elevating  social  circles.  So  there  is  a 
wisdom  of  bringing  men  to  Him  whose  divine  image 
we  all  bear  and  whose  will  it  is  our  highest  glory 
to  follow.  This  wisdom  consists  in  coming  to  such 
a  degree  under  the  constraining  love  of  Christ  and 
into  such  profound  identification  with  Christ  in  His 
outreach  after  lost  men,  that  it  shall  no  longer  seem 
to  us  a  vast  condescension  to  take  our  places  beside 
men  just  as  they  are  and  lock  hands  with  them  in  a 
helpful   human    fellowship.     It  will    not   be  without 


272  BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD 

cost.  It  was  not  without  cost  to  Him,  and  it  will 
not  be  without  cost  to  us.  Bringing  men  to  God  is 
not  a  Maj'-game  business.  The  kingdom  of  heaven 
is  not  to  be  ushered  in  with  noise  of  rolling  drums 
and  the  pomp  of  parade  and  flying  banners,  but  only 
as  somebody  wrestles  and  toils  and  prays  and  loves. 
But  while  it  is  hard,  and  only  possible  through  the 
spirit  of  Christ  stirring  our  hearts  and  warming  our 
hands  and  pressing  us  on,  yet  under  the  influence  of 
this  spirit  men  will  3-ield  and  turn  to  God. 

Herein  lies  the  solution  of  the  much-debated  ques- 
tion of  reaching  the  masses.  That  the  church  ought 
to  reach  the  masses  is  beyond  controversy.  Think 
of  them.  Multitudes  on  multitudes,  swa3'ing  back 
and  forth,  clutching  at  every  kind  of  self-defense, 
driven  hither  and  thither  by  all  sorts  of  winds  and 
cross-winds  of  doubts  and  queries  and  denials,  with- 
out God  and  without  hope  in  the  world!  Ministers, 
churches,  associations,  councils,  conferences,  con- 
gresses, clubs,  seminaries  ought  to  give  themselves 
no  pause  till  they  have  come  to  some  satisfactory 
conclusion  as  to  the  best  ways  of  getting  the  truth 
as  it  is  in  Jesus  pressed  on  the  attention  of  the 
masses.  Those  are  words  of  deep  significance  which 
Professor  Phelps  addresses  to  ministers.  But  while 
especially  applicable  to  ministers,  they  are  appli- 
cable also  to  all  who  in  any  way  co-work  with  min- 
isters and  share  with  them  in  the  responsibility 
of  acquainting  all  men  with  God.  "A  preacher 
had    better    work    in    the    dark,    with    nothing    but 


BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD  273 

mother-wit,  a  quickened  conscience  and  a  Saxon 
Bible  to  teach  him  what  to  do  and  how  to  do  it,  than 
to  vault  into  an  aerial  ministry  in  which  only  the  up- 
per classes  shall  know  or  care  anything  about  him. 
You  had  better  go  and  talk  the  gospel  in  the  Cornish 
dialect  to  those  miners  who  told  the  witnesses  sum- 
moned by  the  committee  of  the  English  parliament 
that  they  had  'never  heard  of  Mister  Jesus  Christ  in 
these  mines,'  than  to  do  the  work  of  the  bishop  of 
London.  Make  your  ministry  reach  the  people; 
with  elaborate  doctrines,  if  possible,  but  reach  the 
people;  with  classic  speech,  if  it  may  be,  but  reach 
the  people.  The  great  problem  of  life  to  an  educated 
ministry  is  to  make  their  culture  a  power  instead  of 
a  luxury.  Our  temptations  are  all  one  way;  our 
mission  is  all  the  other  way." 

For  one,  I  have  no  fancy  for  what  are  called 
Salvation  Armies.  They  are  not  to  my  taste.  But 
who  am  I,  who  are  we,  to  interpose  our  criticisms 
and  protests,  if  men  are  actually  reached  and  taken 
out  of  the  slums  of  all  degradation  and  brought  to 
God?  I  do  not  believe  in  being  made  the  cat's-paw 
of  shrewd  land-speculators  and  wily  catch-penny 
maneuverers,  who  pretend  great  zeal  for  religion 
and  who  thinly  disguise  their  schemes  by  calling 
them  camp-meetings.  But  it  is  absolutely  certain 
that  not  a  few  find  God  in  these  gatherings.  Are 
so  many  finding  God  in  the  ordinary  and  unobjec- 
tionable ways?  Are  so  many  trying  to  walk  worthy 
of  God  that  we  can  afford  to  say  men  shall  not  come 


274  BRINGING  MEN  TO  COD 

in  unless  they  come  by  gates  having  the  true  aesthetic 
design  and  proportion  and  finish?  It  is  not  to  be 
forgotten  that  the  city  which  John  saw  coming  down 
out  of  heaven  from  God  had  twelve  gates:  "On  the 
east  three  gates;  on  the  north  three  gates;  on  the 
south  three  gates;  and  on  the  west  three  gates."  If 
those  northern  gates  were  for  cool,  circumspect  peo- 
ple, quite  likely  the  southern  are  for  impetuous, 
shouting  folk  like  Bartimeus.  If  wild  "mountain 
evangelists"  and  if  "boy  preachers"  with  their  ex- 
travagances and  contortions  can  only  succeed  in 
bringing  men  to  God,  it  is  not  for  anybody  to  rise  up 
and  forbid  them. 

At  the  same  time,  if  the  spirit  and  method  of  Christ 
could  only  be  reproduced  in  the  disciples  of  Christ, 
and  men  and  women  of  culture  and  wealth  and  influ- 
ence, with  characters  unimpeached  and  positions 
assured,  could  be  induced  to  let  the  love  of  Christ  flow 
out  through  them,  putting  a  look  of  compassion  into 
the  eye  and  a  tone  of  tenderness  into  the  voice  and  a 
sympathetic  warmth  into  the  hand,  it  would  go  further 
than  all  the  schemes  and  devices  which  can  be  hatched 
in  a  thousand  years  toward  settling  this  whole 
problem  of  reaching  the  masses.  There  is  not  a 
church  in  America  so  stiff  and  cold  that  it  could  not 
be  popularized  in  a  twelvemonth  if  only  the  ten  or 
twelve  leading  members,  men  and  women,  would  set 
themselves  to  the  task  in  the  spirit  and  after  the 
method  of  Christ.  The  trouble  is  that  all  our  tend- 
encies and  inclinations  are  toward  the  top.     Worldly 


BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD  275 

methods  and  habits  of  estimating  men  hold  us  in 
their  grip.  Our  standards  are  commercial  and  social 
and  aesthetic.  Ambition  and  pride  and  love  of  ease 
displace  the  spirit  of  self-sacrificing  service.  The 
gravitations  on  the  human  side  are  upwards  and  to- 
wards exclusiveness.  Churches  are  like  pines;  when 
they  begin  to  grow  their  limbs  are  low  down,  and 
the  little  timid  birds  ma}'  perch  in  their  branches, 
and  find  shelter  and  sing  their  songs.  But  as  they 
stretch  up,  year  by  year,  their  lower  limbs  fall  off, 
until  at  last  their  tops  are  so  high  that  there  is  onl}- 
housing  in  them  for  the  eagles  and  the  hawks  and 
the  crows.  The  poor  timid  groundlings  must  look 
elsewhere,  and  the  distrust  is  spread  all  abroad.  The 
correction  of  the  mischief  lies  not  in  inventing  machin- 
ery which  will  have  more  clatter  when  in  motion  than 
the  simple  church  of  Christ,  nor  in  running  off  into 
what  may  be  called  church-annexes  of  one  sort  and 
another;  but  in  taking  up  into  ourselves,  and  illus- 
trating in  all  our  comings  and  goings,  the  spirit  which 
was  in  Him.  That  spirit  in  the  pulpit  and  in  the 
pews  will  reach  the  masses  and    bring  men  to  God. 

III.  Our  conception  of  what  it  is  to  bring  7nen  to 
God  must  be  as  large  and  all-inclusive  as  was  the  con- 
ception of  yesus. 

With  Jesus  this  work  took  two  forms  and  involved 
two  processes.  The  one  was  what  we  technically 
call  the  conversion  of  men,  and  the  other  was  the 
building  up  of  men  in  righteousness.  The  one  was 
inducing  men  to   recognize    God,  to    have   faith  in 


276  BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD 

Him  and  in  the  spirit  of  loving  submission  to  His 
will  to  turn  about  from  their  old  bad  ways  and  walk 
in  His  paths;  the  other  was  making  them  like  God, 
—  sweet,  affectionate,  helpful  and  grandly  loyal  to 
every  truth  and  duty.  He  said  "Believe,"  and  He 
led  just  as  many  as  possible  to  the  exercise  of  faith 
and  repentance;  but  He  never  stopped  there.  He 
took  believers  right  on — insisted  that  they  them- 
selves should  go  right  on  —  into  the  doing  of  the 
divine  will,  and  so  forming  character. 

It  is  unfortunate  for  the  interest  of  the  church,  or 
rather  for  the  interest  of  humanity,  whose  regene- 
ration the  church  under  God  aspires  to  accomplish, 
that  this  twofold  notion  has  not  always  been  kept  in 
mind.  Some  have  seemed  to  maintain  that  conversion 
is  the  chief  business  and  that  when  men  have  been 
made  thoughtful,  anxious,  led  into  the  inquiry-room, 
brought  to  their  knees  in  confession  and  supplication, 
persuaded  to  bear  testimony  to  the  grace  of  God  shed 
abroad  in  their  hearts  in  some  public  way  and  to 
unite  in  membership  with  believers,  they  may  be  dis- 
missed from  care.  Others  have  seemed  to  maintain 
that  this  preliminary  work  of  winning  men  into  the 
faith  and  acknowledgment  of  God  is  of  little  conse- 
quence in  comparison  with  instructing  and  establish- 
ing them  in  the  principles  of  the  new  life.  Whereas, 
the  true  conception  takes  in  both  these  ideas.  Men 
are  to  be  won  to  the  faith,  and  then  they  are  to  be 
built  up  in  the  faith.  It  is  not  one  or  the  other;  it  is 
not  one  over  against  the  other;  it  is  one  and  the  other. 


BRINGING  MEN'  TO  GOD  277 

Paul,  better  than  any  other,  perhaps,  interprets  for 
us  the  breadth  and  sweep  of  Christ's  conception  of 
bringing  men  to  God.  If  we  look  for  the  unifying 
element  in  the  life  and  teaching  of  the  great  apostle, 
we  find  it  in  his  complete  and  uncompromising  de- 
votion to  Christ.  This  was  his  absorbing  passion. 
But  the  service  which  was  the  outgrowth  and  ex- 
pression of  his  one  thought  of  devotion  took  two  di- 
rections, the  winning  and  the  upbuilding;  and  any 
man  may  well  be  challenged  to  tell  in  which  Paul  was 
the  more  interested. 

Paul  sought  men,  and  he  sought  them  with  all  the 
ardor  and  energy  of  his  great  soul.  His  desire  to 
acquaint  men  with  God  in  Christ,  and  to  persuade 
them  to  accept  Him,  was  a  fire  in  his  bones.  He 
was  as  eager  to  catch  men  for  the  Lord  as  any  fisher- 
man ever  was  to  hook  trout  or  grayling  or  any 
spojtsman  to  bag  his  game.  He  went  from  city  to 
city,  from  province  to  province,  from  Asia  across 
into  Europe;  he  took  advantage  of  the  opportunities 
afforded  him  when  he  was  summoned  into  the  pres- 
ence of  governors  and  others  in  authority;  he  availed 
himself  of  disasters  by  sea  and  of  persecutions  by 
land;  he  pushed  his  way  into  the  great  centers  of 
learning  and  trade  and  commerce;  he  condescended 
to  the  lowly;  he  toiled  with  his  own  hands;  he  suf- 
fered want;  he  endured  reproach  and  abuse,  —  all 
that  he  might  press  Jesus  and  the  resurrection  on  the 
attention  of  men.  Unweariedly  and  everywhere  he 
beckoned  men  to  the  Lord.   He  saw  the  great  masses 


378  BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD 

of  mankind  astray  and  alienated  from  the  life  of  God, 
he  saw  souls  everywhere  defiled  and  bondaged  and 
burdened  by  sin,  and  the  impulse  took  possession  of 
him  and  kept  possession  of  him  to  go  forth  to  the 
rescue.  It  is  but  a  blind  and  unsympathetic  reading 
of  the  life  of  Paul  which  finds  nothing  to  awaken  in- 
tense desire  and  to  inspire  intense  activity  in  the  di- 
rection of  winning  men  into  discipleship. 

The  mistake  is  in  assuming  that  this  exhausts  the 
meaning  of  Paul's  life  and  covers  all  his  work.  He 
had  an  after-care.  His  zeal  for  winning  souls  passed 
over  into  zeal  for  developing  and  training  souls.  He 
saw  no  place  for  pause  short  of  complete  conformity 
to  the  pattern  of  Jesus.  He  aimed  at  pure  and  ex- 
alted character.  He  wanted  men  who  believe  to  be 
large  and  full  and  round  in  their  manhood,  informed 
and  vitalized  with  truth,  able  to  stand  erect  in  a 
clean-handed  righteousness,  intelligent  and  just  and 
sweet  in  their  lives.  He  urged  to  integrity.  He 
wanted  men  to  be  all  that  the  confession  of  Christ 
implies,  to  walk  worthy  of  their  high  vocation.  His 
soul  swelled  with  the  impatience  which  is  born  of  an 
affectionate  interest  in  the  presence  of  those  who 
were  content  to  stand  still  and  be  largely  just  what 
they  always  had  been.  "Forward"  was  his  watch- 
word. Pressing  himself  toward  the  mark  for  the 
prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus,  he 
desired  others  to  do  so  too.  His  prayer  in  behalf  of 
the  Ephesians  was ''that  He  would  grant  you,  ac- 
cording to  the  riches  of  His  glory,  to  be  strengthened 


BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD  279 

with  might  by  His  Spirit  in  the  inner  man  ;  that  Christ 
may  dwell  in  your  hearts  by  faith ;  that  3^6,  being 
rooted  and  grounded  in  love,  maybe  able  to  compre- 
hend with  all  saints  what  is  the  breadth  and  length  and 
depth  and  height,  and  to  know  the  love  of  Christ, 
which  passeth  knowledge,  that  ye  might  bejillcdwith 
all  the  fullness  of  God.'''*  What  a  standard !  What  a  defi- 
nite and  intense  longing  that  believers  may  realize  to 
the  full  all  that  is  made  possible  for  them  through  the 
revelation  of  God  in  Christ,  and  by  their  new  birth  into 
the  kingdom!  Unto  a  perfect  man  was  the  goal  he 
fixed.  It  is  impossible  to  read  his  letters  without  be- 
ing made  to  feel  this.  His  epistles  are  aglow  with  en- 
thusiasm for  the  growth  of  believers  in  knowledge  and 
love  and  purity  and  moral  strength,  and  every  quality 
which  enters  into  our  ideal  of  character. 

There  is  a  pertinent  and  very  significant  fact  stated 
in  Acts.  In  the  account  of  their  first  missionary 
journey  we  read  of  a  retracing  of  steps  by  Paul  and 
Barnabas.  "They  returned  again  to  Lystra  and  to 
Iconium  and  Antioch."  In  these  second  visits  to  the 
cities  they  had  once  passed  through,  what  were  they 
doing?  "Confirming  the  souls  of  the  disciples  and 
exhorting  them  to  continue  in  the  faith."  The  whole 
aim  was  to  establish  and  strengthen,  to  encourage 
and  to  instruct  disciples  concerning  the  truth  and 
way  of  God.  It  was  not  enough  that  the}^  had  be- 
gun in  Christ;  they  must  be  built  up  in  Christ.  As 
yet  they  were  only  beginners;  they  must  go  on. 
They  were  babes;  they  must    become  men.     Their 


280  BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD 

faith  must  be  carried  forward  and  crystallized  into 
robust  character. 

Great  stress,  then,  is  laid  on  the  winning  of  men; 
but  stress  just  as  great  is  to  be  laid  on  building  them 
up.  They  are  to  be  won  with  a  view  to  building 
them  up,  and  built  up  because  the  winning  is  abor- 
tive without  it.  It  would  be  an  unpardonable  offense 
to  reduce  Christianity  to  a  mere  educating  force,  or 
to  drop  down  into  the  notion  that  the  kingdom  of  our 
Lord  is  to  be  advanced  till  it  fills  and  dominates  the 
earth  just  by  training  those  who  already  believe  or 
who  from  time  to  time  ma}^  chance  to  find  their  way 
into  the  faith.  But  it  is  an  offense  of  no  less  magni- 
tude to  gather  men  in  and  then  leave  them  unripe 
and  undeveloped,  not  broad  and  intelligent  and  in- 
tegral and  alive  in  ever}-  power  and  faculty  with  the 
life  of  God,  but  narrow  and  one-sided.  Men  are 
not  brought  to  God  in  anything  more  than  a  mere 
rudimentary  way  until  they  are  brought  in  the  am- 
plitude and  fullness  which  lift  their  whole  being  into 
the  light,  and  project  them  in  all  their  thoughts  and 
aims  and  activities  along  the  line  of  the  divine  will. 

This  means  men  of  large  faith,  men  of  purit}', 
men  of  fidelit}^  men  who  are  open  and  straightfor- 
ward, men  who  will  not  lie  nor  cheat  nor  steal  nor 
meanly  equivocate;  men  whose  virtue  will  not  melt 
away  under  the  seductions  of  pleasure  nor  the  temp- 
tations of  bribes;  men  whose  pulse  is  warm  and 
strong  with  love  and  whose  hands  are  quick  to 
help;  men  with  intelligent  convictions  in  their  souls 


BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD  281 

and  who  walk  their  ways  and  do  their  work  in  the 
confidence  that  obeying  conscience  and  following 
God  are  never  without  exceeding  great  rewards. 

Remembering  the  thief  on  the  cross,  and  what  our 
Lord  said  to  him,  I  do  not  dare  to  ridicule  the  assur- 
ances sometimes  expressed  by  condemned  criminals 
about  to  be  executed  that  they  are  going  straight  from 
the  hangman's  hands  into  glory.  But  I  am  very  cer- 
tain the  religion  we  want,  and  the  religion  we  shall 
have  when  men  have  been  brought  to  God  in  the 
large  way  of  Christ's  conception,  will  be  a  religion 
which  will  not  do  so  much  to  enable  men  to  go  up 
singing  and  shouting  from  the  gallows  as  to  keep 
them  from  the  gallows. 

No  organization  can  escape  the  annoyance  and 
discredit  of  pretenders.  The  purer  any  association 
may  be,  the  more  surely  will  it  be  used  hy  designing 
men  and  arrant  hypocrites.  Still,  there  are  too  many 
who  bear  the  Christian  name  to  be  found  in  our  state- 
prisons  and  penitentiaries.  Or  if  they  have  not 
reached  these  lengths  in  crime  and  exposure  and 
punishment,  there  are  too  many  whose  word  is  not 
good,  whose  fidelity  is  not  equal  to  the  strain  of  a 
large  trust,  who  fall  too  easily  into  all  the  tricks  and 
duplicities  of  the  world  and  whose  general  honesty 
needs  the  sharp  tonic  of  a  daily  watch.  "Lord,  who 
shall  abide  in  Thy  tabernacle?  He  that  walketh  up- 
rightly and  worketh  righteousness  and  speaketh  the 
truth  in  his  heart."  When  men  are  brought  to  God, 
or  when  they  come  to  God  in  the    right  way,  it  is  in 


282  BRINGING  MEN  TO  GOD 

the  totality  of  themselves, — head,  hand,  heart;  and 
these  for  every  day  in  the  week  and  for  every  place 
under  the  canop}'  of  heaven.  To  bring  men  to  God 
in  the  right  way,  and  in  the  completeness  of  the 
bringing,  is  to  bring  their  homes  along  with  them 
and  their  schools  and  their  stores  and  their  factories 
and  their  counting-houses  and  their  politics  and 
their  laws  and  customs  and  institutions  and  their 
newspapers  and  their  literature  and  their  wealth 
and  their  special  gifts  of  genius,  sweetening  all,  ele- 
vating and  broadening  all  and  writing  across  the 
whole  economy  of  life:  "Holiness  unto  the  Lord." 


THE  INCREASING  CHRIST. 

He  must  increase.    John  j:  jo. 

These  are  the  words  of  John  the  Baptist.  They 
were  uttered  when  his  own  mission  was  nearly  ac- 
complished, and  when  the  great  work  of  Jesus  on 
earth  was  just  commencing.  Finding  in  them  a 
theme  alwa3's  quickening,  it  has  seemed  to  me  good 
to  devote  the  time  put  at  my  disposal  to  a  reverent 
and  earnest  consideration  of    T/ie  Increasing  Christ. 

Doing  so  it  will  be  my  endeavor  to  show  that  this 
prediction  of  the  Forerunner  has  abundant  justification 
in  the  position  which  our  Lord  actually  holds  among 
men  to-day. 

I.  Naturally  our  first  inquiry  will  concern  the  re- 
lation of  yesus  to  the  brain  of  the  time,  or  the  esti- 
mate which  is  put  upon  Him  by  the  instructed  and 
sober  judgment  of  the  age. 

In  the  conception  of  many,  this,  in  addition  to  be- 
ing logically  the  true  point  of  departure  for  such  a 
discussion,  is  the  most  vital  test  that  can  be  applied, 
while  there  is  no  one  who  will  not  regard  it  as  of 
great  consequence  to  be  determined.  For  the  ideas 
of  men,  the  opinions  which  they  intelligently  form, 
the  sentiments  which  they  inwardly  cherish,  will 
sooner  or  later  crystallize  into  fact  and  control  life. 
The  real  thoughts  of  to-day,  whether    announced   or 

283 


284  THE  INCREASING  CHRIST 

not,  are  the  grooves  along  which  will  run  the  cus- 
toms and  institutions  and  creeds  of  to-morrow.  The 
latent  convictions  which  are  entertained  after  men 
have  patiently  studied  and  reflected  are  buds  which 
will  blossom  sometime  and  become  fruit.  If  there 
be  anything  which  has  ceased  to  have  entrenchment 
in  the  enlightened  thought  of  the  world,  its  complete 
overthrow  is  only  a  matter  of  time.  If  there  be  any- 
thing that  is  becoming  more  and  more  buttressed 
with  the  growing  assent  of  cultivated  intelligence, 
no  concern  need  be  felt  for  its  future. 

He  whom  we  regard  as  the  Saviour  of  the  world 
and  at  whose  feet  millions  fall  in  devoutest  adoration 
and  trust,  can  not  in  the  long  run  be  an  exception  to 
the  rule.  Before  the  bar  of  that  calm  reason  in  the 
soul  of  man  to  which  God  Himself,  through  the  mouth 
of  the  prophet,  has  seen  fit  to  make  appeal,  He  must 
take  His  place. 

How  fares  it,  then,  with  Jesus  in  the  schools? 
What  do  instructed  and  strong  men  think  about  Him  ? 
Looking  back  at  Him  across  the  space  of  eighteen 
centuries  and  from  the  illuminated  heights  of  our 
modern  learning,  as  He  lies  there  in  the  manger  at 
Bethlehem  or  hangs  on  the  cross  of  Calvary,  and 
taking  His  words  and  His  works  and  His  character 
and  bringing  them  into  the  focus  of  our  latest  and 
clearest  light,  what  are  the  conclusions  which  com  - 
petent  men  are  forced  to  draw  ?  Has  criticism  taken 
Him  down  from  His  high  place  in  the  world  of 
thought    and  broken  his  grasp  on   the  judgment   of 


THE  INCREASING  CHRIST  285 

large  and  sincere  minds?  Or  in  the  opinion  of  the 
best  informed  and  most  candid  is  He  still  able  to 
maintain  His  hold    as  the  true  Son  of  God? 

Fortunately  we  are  not  without  materials  on  which 
to  base  an  answer.  Never  before  has  there  been  a 
time  when  it  was  possible  to  approach  the  matter  with 
so  many  and  so  varied  results  of  investigation,  and 
when  there  was  such  a  volume  of  experience  and 
testimony  of  one  kind  and  another  actually  on  record 
to  help  in  arriving  at  trustworthy  conclusions.  For 
eighteen  hundred  years  the  story  of  Jesus  has  been 
before  the  world;  and  it  has  led  to  numberless  spec- 
ulations and  controversies.  The  questions  of  His 
nature,  His  doctrines,  the  ends  at  which  He  aimed 
and  of  the  need  and  merits  of  His  death  have  all 
been  examined  and  re-examined,  until  the  books 
which  contain  the  outcome  of  these  labors  are  an 
immense  library  b}'  themselves.  But  at  no  previous 
period  have  men  been  so  intent  on  getting  at  the  ex- 
act facts  of  His  human  history  and  knowing  pre- 
cisely what  He  said  and  did  and  was,  as  within  the 
last  fifty  years.  He,  indeed,  is  the  pivot  over  which 
the  profoundest  thought  of  the  age  has  played.  He 
is  the  problem  on  which  the  highest  scholarship  of 
our  generation  has  been  concentrated.  To  estimate 
and  locate  Him  beyond  the  necessity  of  any  re-ad- 
justment of  His  claims  has  been  the  task  the  most 
earnest  and  scholarly  intellects  in  the  religious  world 
have  assigned  to  themselves,  and  which  the  awaiting 
masses  have  demanded  should  be  accomplished.    He 


286  THE  INCREASING  CHRIST 

has  been  felt  to  be  the  key-position  in  the  conflict; 
and  both  assailants  and  defenders  have  concentrated 
their  heaviest  forces  on  Him,  as  though  it  were  mu- 
tually understood  that  if  He  can  be  carried  then  all 
can  be  carried,  and  if  He  can  be  held  then  all  can  be 
saved.  Faith  and  philosophy  alike  have  consented 
to  join  in  this  one  common  request:  Tell  us  some- 
thing —  something  sure  and  final,  if  it  may  be,  about 
Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

In  this  way  it  has  come  about  that  everything  per- 
taining to  the  God-Man  has  been  severely  canvassed. 
The  whole  ground  has  been  traversed  and  re-trav- 
ersed. Both  sides  have  investigated  every  minutest 
fact  touching  His  birth  and  life  and  death  and  resur- 
rection. Not  only  have  believers  sought  Him  out  and 
studied  His  sayings  and  doings  with  an  absorbing  in- 
terest, but  unbelievers  as  well,  spurred  on  by  a  rash- 
ness which  was  barbed  with  hate,  have  invaded  the 
circle  of  His  being  and  dealt  with  Him  as  demonstrat- 
ors in  anatomy  deal  with  a  subject  on  the  dissecting- 
table.  Catching  the  spirit  of  a  time  when  won- 
derful advances  have  been  made  all  along  the  line  of 
knowledge,  and  which  is  characterized  by  the  over- 
turning of  old  methods  and  the  persistent  re-investi- 
gation of  facts  and  theories  in  all  spheres,  men  have 
not  hesitated  to  put  the  Divine  One  in  their  balances 
and  weigh  Him,  His  own  questions  were:  ^''  Whom  do 
men  say  that  I  am?^^  and  "  What  think  ye  oj  Christf'' 
These  questions  have  been  taken  fearlessly  up;  the 
Gospel  narratives  have  been  sifted;  and  answers  have 


THE  INCREASING  CHRIST  287 

been  rendered.  There  has  been  no  evasion  of  what 
was  difficult  and  delicate.  Nothing  has  been  spared 
to  prejudice.  No  statement,  no  atom  of  evidence, 
has  been  permitted  to  pass  unchallenged  and  with- 
out the  closest  and  most  uncompromising  scrutiny 
into  its  worth  and  bearing.  However  it  may  have 
been  in  other  days,  in  these  days  there  has  been  no 
holding  back  of  conclusions  lest  the  feelings  of  good 
souls  might  be  shocked  and  the  faith  of  trusting  souls 
unsettled.  More  than  this.  There  have  been  men, 
not  a  few,  who  seemed  to  take  delight  in  reviving 
the  council  of  the  Jews  and  bringing  in  their  pre- 
determined verdict  of  guilty.  Or  in  repeating  the 
demand  of  the  excited  mob  and  crying:  Crucify 
Ilim!  Crucify  Him!  Or  in  re-enacting  the  cruelty 
of  the  soldiers  and  thrusting  the  spear- point  of  their 
sharpest  malice  into  His  side.  If  Christ  be  not  the 
Christ  and  the  world  still  insists  on  believing  in  His 
name,  it  is  not  because  adequate  effort  has  not  been 
made  to  disabuse  the  nations  of  their  confidence. 

But  we  do  not  need  to  pass  all  these  critical  as- 
saults and  vindications  in  review.  It  so  happens  that 
in  a  large  and  comprehensive  survey  undertaken  for 
the  purpose  of  finding  out  the  real  standing  of  Jesus 
in  the  world  of  thought,  there  is  one  name  which  is 
conspicuous  and  significant  above  all  others.  In  the 
attempt  which  this  man  made  to  overturn  and  de- 
stroy Jesus  as  though  he  were  another  Dagon  set  up 
in  another  temple  of  blind  superstition,  and  in  the 
reception  which  this  effort  met  at  the  court  of  a  wise 


288  THE  INCREASING  CHRIST 

and  sober  public  opinion,  we  have  a  fact  which  reg- 
isters for  us  better  than  anything  else  to  which  we 
can  turn,  the  estimate  in  which  the  Son  of  God  is 
held  throughout  Christendom. 

It  is  now  sixty  years  since  Strauss  issued  his  fa- 
mous Life  of  Jesus.  This  book  startled  like  a  clap 
of  thunder  out  of  a  clear  sky.  Coming  from  a  land 
already  noted  for  its  enthusiasm  and  eminence  in 
historic  research  and  from  the  pen  of  one  who, 
though  young  when  he  wrote  it,  as  Calvin  was  young 
when  he  wrote  his  Institutes^  each  being  only 
twenty-seven  years  of  age,  was  yet  a  scholar  well 
disciplined,  of  large  resources,  of  indefatigable  spirit 
and  of  much  promise,  it  compelled  attention  and 
forced  men  to  meet  the  issue  of  Christ  or  No-Christ, 
fair  and  square. 

When  looked  into,  the  book  was  found  to  be  an 
attempt  to  show  that  the  Gospels  as  historic  materials 
cannot  be  trusted;  that  miracles  are  impossible;  and 
that  Jesus  Himself  is  only  a  myth. 

It  was  on  the  latter  proposition  that  chief  stress 
was  laid ;  for  it  was  the  object  of  the  work  to  reduce 
Jesus  to  the  rank  of  a  divinit}'  in  the  old  heathen  m}'- 
thology.  The  real  Jesus  was  not  the  Jesus  of  the 
Gospels  and  of  our  Christian  faith,  but  a  person  on 
whom  the  imagination  of  men  seized  and  dwelt  until 
he  was  exalted  into  a  supernatural  being. 

These  statements  were  supported  b}^  the  canons  of 
what  was  claimed  to  be  highest  criticism  and  by  the 
inductions  of  what  was  claimed  to    be  the    most  ad- 


THE  INCREASING  CHRIST  289 

vanced  science  and  by  the  dogmas  of  what  was 
claimed  to  be  the  profoundest  philosophy.  It  was 
the  most  studied  and  determined  endeavor  ever  made 
to  dislodge  Jesus  from  His  entrenchment  in  the  intel- 
lectual regard  of  men.  Fresh  from  the  school  of 
Baur  with  his  vast  wealth  of  knowledge  and  his  icon- 
oclastic spirit,  a  pupil  also  of  Schleiermacher  and 
steeped  through  and  through  with  the  philosophy  of 
Hegel,  he  was  able  to  bring  the  most  polished  weap- 
ons of  wit  and  learning  and  logic  to  the  encounter. 
In  audacity  and  skill  and  thoroughness  the  cen- 
turies furnish  no  mate  to  this  attack  of  Strauss  on 
Jesus.  Celsus  aimed  to  do  the  same  thing  at  an  early 
day,  but  he  was  coarse  in  comparison  and  his  ar- 
raignment consisted  largely,  as  another  has  said,  of 
a  reproduction  and  endorsement  of  the  motives  of 
"Judaism  with  its  unfulfilled  ideas  of  the  Messiah 
and  its  calumnious  traditions."  Later,  Renan  tried 
his  hand  in  the  same  direction,  but  there  is  no  such 
dead  earnestness  in  his  assault.  On  the  contrary  his 
Life  of  fesus  makes  the  impression  of  one  who  is 
simply  playing  with  his  subject, and  is  chiefly  inter- 
ested in  what  is  romantic  and  beautiful  about  it.  The 
German  couched  his  lance  for  a  straight  heart-thrust. 
It  was  an  assault  upon  the  foundations.  Whatever 
else  it  might  leave  us,  it  was  designed  to  remove  Him 
in  whom  we  trusted  for  the  delivery  of  the  world 
from  the  guilt  and  pollution  of  sin. 

What  came  of  it?     Did  reason  bend    down  in  ac- 
quiescence?    Did  he  carry  with  him  the  ripe  intelli- 


290  THE  INCREASING  CHRIST 

gence  of  these  latest  years?  Did  instructed  men  give 
assent  to  this  new  theory  as  they  did  to  the  announce- 
ment of  the  law  of  gravitation  ? 

The  answers  to  these  questions  ,are  open  to  the 
world.  The  radical  position  taken  by  Strauss  and 
the  arguments  brought  forward  by  him  in  support  of 
his  position  set  the  scholars  of  the  time  upon  an 
earnest  re-investigation  of  the  whole  subject  of 
Christ,  His  nature  and  character  and  place  in  human- 
ity and  the  ground  on  which  His  claims  rest.  Not 
in  all  the  centuries  before  were  so  many  minds  set 
upon  the  task  of  a  severe  critical  examination  of  the 
record  and  secret  of  the  power  of  our  Lord, as  under- 
took this  work  subsequent  to  the  appearance  of 
Strauss' Z//^  of  Jesus.  From  that  day  to  this  men 
distinguished  for  learning  as  well  as  piety  have  been 
pouring  out  their  maturest  conclusions  on  Christ  and 
the  authenticity  and  genuineness  of  the  Gospel  in 
which  His  wonderful  story  is  told.  It  would  take 
pages  to  recite  the  titles  of  the  books  on  Christ  which 
have  been  prepared  by  eminent  authors  and  sent  out 
into  the  world  within  the  latter   half  of   this  century. 

But  the  fact  of  significance  is  that  these  treatises 
on  Christ  which  have  been  most  loyal  to  the  New 
Testament  account  of  Christ  are  those  which  have 
vs'on  the  deepest  convictions  and  secured  the  widest 
approval  among  men.  From  an  intellectual  point 
of  view  Christ  lost  nothing,  but  gained  much,  through 
the  assault  of  Strauss. 

This,  Strauss  himself  was  forced  to   admit.     For 


THE  INCREASING  CHRIS!  291 

after  waiting  about  thirty  years  and  devoting  his 
energies  to  a  wide  range  of  studies,  he  re-appeared 
upon  the  stage  with  further  statements  concerning 
Christ.  These  statements  were  designed  by  him  to 
be  a  summing  up  of  the  results  of  the  combined  criti- 
cisms of  the  world  and  to  see  what  place  the  despised 
Nazarene  still  maintained  in  the  minds  of  men  after 
an  attempt  so  ingenious  and  well  organized  and  per- 
sistent to  overthrow  Him.  The  fruits  of  such  an  at- 
tempt might  well  have  been  looked  for.  If  there  was 
to  be  a  marked  change  in  religious  opinion  and  men 
were  to  abandon  Jesus,  it  might  be  expected  that 
evidence  of  this  would  appear  at  the  end  of  three  dec- 
ades. But,  strange  to  say,  according  to  his  own 
frank  admission,  after  all  the  examination  of  original 
material  to  which  his  attack  had  led  and  with  so 
much  time  for  the  lesson  of  this  new  view  to  work 
and  with  a  free  press  multiplying  and  a  hundred- 
handed  enterprise  distributing  his  conclusions,  not  a 
solitar}'  man  eminent  for  ability  and  scholarship 
could  be  found  either  in  Germany  or  France  or  Eng- 
land or  America  to  go  along  with  him  in  his  con- 
ception of  Christ. 

Aristotle  said  that  science,  to  be  science,  must  be 
capable  of  being  taught.  This  was  the  test  he  ap- 
plied: Facts  must  be  combined  and  phenomena  ex- 
plained in  such  a  way  as  to  certify  themselves  to  the 
intelligence  and  candor  of  whoever  might  ex'amine 
them. 

Here    was    a  disposition  of  ancient   records    and 


5«j3  the  increasing  CHRIST 

a  re-casting  of  well-settled  opinions  and  ideas  after 
a  method  which  purported  to  be  scientific;  and 
yet  nobody  of  commanding  influence  was  ready  to 
admit  himself  convinced  that  the  old  way  of  looking 
at  Jesus  was  wrong  and  the  new  way  right. 

Strauss  made  partial  converts.  Some  agreed  with 
him  in  one  thing,  some  in  another.  One  would  assent 
to  his  ruling  out  of  certain  portions  of  the  Gospel. 
Another  was  ready  to  say  miracles  are  impossible. 
But  from  the  sheer  abyss  of  a  completely  annihilated 
Jesus,  as  a  merely  mythical  Jesus  would  be,  all  the 
leading  thinkers  turned  back.  Even  Theodore  Parker 
rebelled  against  the  assumption  that  He  whom  this 
critic  conceded  to  have  been  a  "beautiful  nature" 
and  who  was  admitted  to  stand  "foremost  among 
those  who  have  given  a  higher  ideal  to  humanity" 
could  have  been  evolved  out  of  the  mind  of  the  age 
in  which  He  had  His  birth. 

Our  question,  therefore,  is  answered.  The  simple 
recitation  of  facts  puts  the  whole  case  before  us. 
Jesus  Christ,  through  all  investigations  and  under  all 
assaults,  has  gained  steadily  on  the  sober,  instructed 
judgment  of  mankind. 

There  is  much  out-and-out  infidelity  abroad.  There 
are  many  conceptions  of  Christ  and  His  work  which 
are  imperfect.  There  is,  as  there  has  always  been 
and  perhaps  always  will  be,  not  a  little  impatience 
with  attempts  to  reduce  Christ  to  the  measure  of  a 
creed.  But  men  believe  in  Jesus;  believe  in  Him 
in  increasing  numbers    and  with  an  increasing    con- 


THE  INCREASING  CHRIST  293 

fidence.  For  the  tide  of  thoughtful  assent  to  His 
claims  swells  continually.  Pride  and  opposition  as- 
sail; but  like  the  mountain-oak,  smitten  by  storms, 
He  only  strikes  His  roots  the  deeper  down  into  en- 
lightened convictions.  Assaults  on  Him  only  serve 
to  clear  the  atmosphere  of  doubts,  and  make  it  seem 
more  reasonable  to  accept  and  follow  Him. 

If  it  be  said  that  the  conception  which  we  have  of 
Jesus  is  a  thing  of  gradual  growth,  men  straightway 
ask:  How  explain  the  record  of  His  life,  a  record 
complete  and  full  from  the  outset,  as  the  Gospels  make 
evident  beyond  all  gainsaying  ?  If  it  be  said  that  He 
was  a  deceiver,  taking  advantage  of  the  expectation 
of  His  race  and  the  credulity  of  His  times  to  foist 
Himself  on  the  world  as  the  promised  Messiah, 
men  straightway  point  to  His  life  and  character  and 
refuse  to  admit  that  such  justice  and  holiness  as  He 
exhibited  could  have  any  association  with  hypocrisy. 
If  it  be  said  that  He  was  an  enthusiast,  borne  on  by  the 
heat  of  His  own  imagination,  men  straightway  answer 
that  there  were  a  sobriety  in  His  nature,  a  self-poise 
manifested  in  all  His  conduct  and  in  all  the  ordeals 
through  which  He  passed  and  especially  a  clear  and 
accurate  pre-vision  of  what  was  to  come  in  succeed- 
ing ages  as  the  result  of  His  teaching  and  His  death, 
wholly  unaccountable  on  the  basis  of  this  conjecture 
and  wholly  irreconcilable  with  the  world's  notion  of 
fanaticism. 

These  conceits  and  theories  can  make  no  general 
progress.    Thoughtful  men   rebel  against  them.  The 


294  THE  INCREASING  CHRIST 

realm  of  mind  over  which  Jesus  holds  dominion  does 
not  lessen.  It  widens  and  widens.  Looked  at  from 
the  standpoint  of  a  disciplined  intelligence,  Jesus  is 
seen  to  be  the  Rock  of  Ages,  and  men  build  on  Him 
and  count  it  rational.  He  is  seen  to  be  the  light  of 
the  world,  and  men  walk  in  the  radiance  of  His  truth 
and  know  it  is  wise.  He  is  seen  to  be  the  divine 
Helper,  and  men  take  His  hand  and  under  His  lead- 
ing find  their  way  into  the  Father's  house. 

It  is  not  the  heart  merely  which  has  clung  to  Jesus 
and  stoutly  refused  to  give  Him  up;  but  the  head  has 
bowed  down  to  the  sublime  miracle  of  His  being,  and 
reason  has  said  and  is  saying  still  with  an  emphasis 
v^'hich  never  before  marked  her  utterances  on  this 
great  fact:  "Truly  this  Man  was  the  Son  of  God." 
Slowly  but  surely  He  is  pressing  on  to  the  conquest 
of  thought;  and  century  by  century,  the  world  over, 
increasing  numbers  are  joining  in  the  confession  of 
Peter:  "And  we  have  believed  and  know  that  Thou 
art  the  Holy  One  of  God."  No  matter  what  theories 
are  propounded  nor  what  forms  criticism  takes,  if 
they  tend  to  diminish  aught  of  the  glory  of  Jesus, 
men  put  them  away.  All  the  great  signs  in  the  na- 
tions point  to  a  time  when  not  the  masses  simply, 
nor  the  representatives  of  the  masses,  but  the  master- 
minds also  shall  rise  up  and  exclaim  with  Thomas: 
"  J/y  Lord  and  my  GodV 

II.  Observe^  now,  in  the  second  place,  the  rela- 
tion which  Christ  sustains  to  the  hand  or  the  -power 
oj  the  earth. 


THE  INCREASING  CHRIST  295 

In  looking  abroad,  we  find  the  total  population  of 
the  globe  to  be  something  near  1,500,000,000.  Ac- 
cording to  the  latest  estimates,  these  numbers  are 
distributed  as  follows:  To  Australia  and  Oceania 
about  5,000,000;  to  America,  about  130,000,000;  to 
Africa,  about  140,000,000;  to  Europe,  a  little  over 
380,000,000;  and  to  Asia,  not  far  from  850,000,000. 
Recent  statistical  writers  have  taken  the  ground, 
for  reasons  given,  that  the  census  of  the  Kast  is 
vastl}'  exaggerated,  and  that  in  China,  for  instance, 
there  are  not  more  than  200,000,000  of  people, 
whereas  the  figures  ordinarily  set  down  are  400,000,- 
000. 

But  for  the  purposes  now  in  view  this  makes  no 
important  difference.  By  any  calculation  it  will  be 
seen  that  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  earth  are  in  Asia  and  Africa;  and  are  still  under 
the  sway  and  within  the  realm  of  pagan  influences. 
Many  millions  of  these  are  in  the  depths  of  barbar- 
ism. If  it  is  to  be  settled  by  majorities,  Christ  is 
very  far  from  being  the  Master  of  the  nations. 
Those  v/ho  are  in  pagan  countries  are  two  to  one, 
possibly  three  to  one,  against  those  who  are  nomi- 
nally Christians.  This  shows  a  prodigious  work  yet 
to  be  accomplished   by  missionary  enterprise. 

Yet  is  it  not  a  long  stride  onward  —  an  immense 
increase  in  numerical  strength,  when  a  third  or  even 
a  quarter  of  the  whole  human  race  has  been  made 
familiar  with  the  name  of  Jesus  and  is  wont  to 
bend  with  a  reverence  more  or  less  intelligent  and 
sincere  at  the  mention  of  Calvary? 


296  THE  INCREASING  CHRIST 

Numbers,  however,  afford  us  only  a  rude  idea  of 
power,  and  actual  strength  has  often  to  be  sought  by 
other  methods  than  numerical  comparisons.  It  cer- 
tainly is  so  here.  For  when  the  nearly  1,000,000,- 
000  of  Asia  and  Africa  are  weighed  in  the  balance 
with  the  500,000,000  of  Europe  and  America,  with 
the  intent  to  ascertain  where  the  more  force  re- 
sides, it  is  the  larger  number  which  quickly  kicks 
the  beam.  Africa  is  bending  under  the  burden 
of  an  ancient  babarism,  and  Asia,  until  recently 
she  has  consented  to  open  her  life  to  new  im- 
pulses from  abroad,  has  been  at  a  stand-still  for  cen- 
turies upon  centuries ;  while  the  enterprise  and  energy 
of  the  earth  are  with  the  Western  nations.  Are 
ships  to  be  sent  out  to  whiten  all  the  seas;  are  rail- 
roads to  be  built  to  link  states  and  kingdoms  to- 
gether and  to  bring  distant  towns  and  cities  into 
close  proximity  and  to  facilitate  trade  and  social  in- 
tercourse; are  telegraphs  to  be  constructed  to  fiash 
thought  afar  and  to  aid  the  ends  of  the  earth  in 
coming  into  easy  communication ;  are  many  inven- 
tions to  be  sought  out  and  sciences  to  be  pushed  into 
unheard  of  applications  and  the  methods  of  house- 
hold toil  and  the  implements  of  husbandry  and  the 
mechanic  arts  to  be  improved;  are  systematic 
efforts  to  be  put  forth  through  schools  and  books  and 
newspapers  and  laws  and  social  intercourse  and  home 
life  and  religion,  to  realize  the  best  possibilities  in 
the  individual  and  in  the  state; — it  is  not  the  dead 
East,  but  the  living  West  out  of  which  the  wondrous 


THE  INCREASING  CHRIST  297 

vitality  necessary  for  the  doing  of  these  things  must 
spring.  Men  to  set  things  in  motion  must  have  the 
inspiration  of  motion  in  their  own  souls.  They  can 
not  quicken  others  until  they  themselves  are  alive. 
When  the  Hottentot  has  measured  muscle  with  the 
Anglo-Saxon,   the  comparison   ends. 

Respect  for  the  Chinese  has  been  increasing  in 
the  last  half-century;  though  it  must  be  admitted  that 
in  the  recent  conflict  between  China  and  Japan  en- 
thusiasm for  China  was  somewhat  checked.  On  the 
whole,  however,  a  better  knowledge  of  the  Middle 
Kingdom  has  shown  us  that  there  are  many  things 
in  the  habits  and  methods  and  institutions  of  that 
people  not  altogether  bad.  But  in  general  the  Asi- 
atic is  afraid  of  progress.  He  sticks  to  tradition  and 
routine.  He  is  nimble;  his  memor}'  serves  him 
wonderfully  ;but  the  originating  and  aggressive  faculty 
is  only  small.  Life  amongst  these  Oriental  peo- 
ple is  almost  an  exact  duplicate  of  what  it  was  thou- 
sands of  years  ago.  No  leavening  force  is  in  them 
and  no  molding  force  goes  out  of  them. 

The  power  of  the  earth,  the  real  power,  because  it 
is  a  power  which  has  its  source  in  knowledge  and 
is  alive  with  moral  purpose  and  means  not  to  sit  on 
from  age  to  age  with  folded  hands,  but  to  do  some, 
thing,  is  with  the  nations  of  the  West. 

What,  now,  is  the  bearing  of  this  particular  fact 
on  the  matter  in  hand?  Very  important.  For  it  is 
in  these  nations  of  the  West  that  Christ  is  acknowl- 
edged in  pre-eminent  degree.     His   name   has   been 


298  THE  Ii\  CREASING  CHRIST 

carried  into  China  and  Japan.  What  has  been  done 
in  these  empires,  especially  in  Japan,  in  the  last  dec- 
ade, is  both  preparation  and  shining  prophecy  of 
what  is  to  be  done  in  the  near  future.  Thousands 
in  India  have  accepted  Ilim.  Whole  islands  have 
turned  their  faces  to  Calvary  and  received  the  law 
at  the  mouth  of  the  crucified  Son  of  God.  His  dis- 
ciples almost  join  hands  in  a  circle  around  Africa; 
and  in  a  little  while  at  the  very  heart  of  that  old,  sad 
continent,  with  its  mighty  rivers  and  its  vast  and 
beautiful  lakes  and  its  brooding  mysteries,  the  ban- 
ner of  the  cross  is  to  be  unfurled,  and  men  and 
women  are  to  witness  freely  amongst  the  multitudes 
of  these  barbarian  tribes  for  Jesus.  But  it  is  the  new 
and  thrifty  and  aggressive  nations  which  have  taken 
Him  up  and  adopted  His  faith  and  wrought  His  ideas 
into  their  laws  and  institutions  and  made  His  life  a 
part  of  their  life.  Thus  His  potency  is  with  those 
who  themselves  are  most  potent  in  shaping  earthly 
destinies.  Numbers  in  large  preponderance  are  still 
against  our  Lord.  When  resolution  is  pitted  against 
resolution;  when  skill  is  measured  with  skill;  when 
enterprise  is  set  over  in  opposition  to  enterprise; 
when  power  locks  hands  with  power,  then  we  find 
Jesus  sitting  in  the  very  gate  of  authority  and  inspir- 
ing the  brains  and  nerving  the  hands  and  moving 
the  arms,  which  control  the  actions  of  the  world. 

There  is  still  a  closer  view  to  be  taken  of  this  sub- 
ject. Up  to  this  point  the  thought  has  been  upon 
what  calls  itself  nominal  Christendom.   Western  em- 


THE  INCREASING  CHRIST  299 

pires  and  peoples  have  been  looked  at  under  this  one 
classification.  No  distinctions  have  been  made  be- 
tween the  great  bodies  of  those  who  accept  Christ  as 
their  common  Redeemer.  Catholics  and  Greeks 
and  Protestants  have  all  been  included  without  dis- 
crimination. 

There  are,  be  it  observed,  very  suggestive  facts 
lurking  within  these  distinctions,  and  we  shall  not 
be  likely  to  have  any  fit  conception  of  the  closeness 
with  which  Christ  comes  to  the  seat  of  modern  power, 
until  we  have  made  a  further  analysis  of  these  nations 
and  have  discovered  which  of  them  it  is  that  wields 
the  scepter  of  widest  influence.  For  it  needs  little  il- 
lustration to  show  that  our  Lord's  strongest  hold  is 
upon  those  people  which  have  the  firmest  grasp  on 
human  affairs,  and  do  most  to  shape  the  public  poli- 
cies and  determine  the  general  drift  of  the  world. 
Or,  to  turn  the  thought  about  a  little,  those  nations 
which  have  the  most  of  Christ  in  them,  which  come 
nearest  to  Him  in  the  acceptance  of  His  truth  and 
life,  are  the  nations  which  are  the  mightiest  in  the 
earth. 

Here,  again,  numbers  seem  to  be  against  the  Son 
of  Man.  For  while  there  are  not  less  than  100,000,- 
000  in  the  Greek  church  in  Europe,  and  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  200,000,000  of  Catholics  in  Europe  and 
America,  there  are  only  about  150,000,000  of  Protest- 
ants all  told.  But  what  is  the  distribution  of  these 
Greek  and  Catholic  elements?  Under  what  national 
banners    do   we    find    these  bodies  preponderating? 


300  THE  INCREASING  CHRIST 

Mark  the  answer.  For  it  is  one  of  the  si^fnificant 
results  of  the  conflicts  which  have  taken  place  within 
the  last  thirty  years,  or  the  period  during  which  the 
late  Emperor  William  sat  upon  the  throne,  that  the 
balance  of  power  in  the  earth  has  passed  out  of 
Catholic  hands.  The  decisive  struggles  between 
Prussia  and  Austria,  and  Germany  and  France, 
wrought  this  important  change.  Only  a  little  while 
ago  Austria  and  France  had  but  to  call  to  arms  and 
all  Europe  trembled.  To-day  each  of  these  nations 
is  struggling  to  recover  from  humiliations  and  dis- 
asters which  left  them  with  little  terror  in  their 
threats. 

Nor  is  this  the  whole  statement  of  the  case.  While 
Catholic  countries  have  been  going  down,  Protest- 
ant countries  have  been  going  up.  It  was  said  in 
Paris  only  a  few  years  ago,  by  a  distinguished  Catho- 
lic preacher,  himself  a  native  of  France,  that  Protest- 
ant nations  were  advancing  all  the  time  while 
Catholic  nations  were  on  the  decline.  He  gave  facts 
in  proof,  some  of  which  have  just  been  indicated,  and 
another  of  which  was  the  steady  growth  of  the  United 
States  over  against  the  hopeless  condition  of  such 
Catholic  nations  as  Spain.  One  risks  nothing  in 
aflirming  that  the  vitality  and  force  of  the  period 
are  with  the  Protestant  nations.  The  energetic  and 
progressive  nations,  the  nations  which  hold  in  their 
hands  the  acknowledged  sovereignty  of  the  times, 
are  the  nations  in  which  Christianity  resides  in  its 
simplest  and  purest  forms. 


THE  INCREASING  CHRIST  301 

Russia,  it  ma}'  be  said,  is  an  exception.  It  is  only 
partly  so.  While  Russia  is  not  Protestant,  neither 
is  it  Catholic.  Though  the  Greek  and  the  Catholic 
creeds  and  methods  of  worship  have  much  in  com- 
mon—  a  great  deal  more  than  the  Greek  and  the 
Protestant  unless  High  Church  Episcopac}'  be  an 
exception,  and  though  the  spirit  of  the  Greek  church 
is  exclusive  and  bitter,  and  Russia  keeps  her  doors 
closed  against  Protestant  preaching  and  influence, 
yet  she  holds  fast  to  some  of  the  better  ideas  which 
are  latent  in  all  forms  of  Christianity,  no  matter  how 
perverted  and  abused. 

In  speaking  of  the  Unity  of  Christian  Belief  m  his 
book  on  Faith  and  Rationalism^  Professor  Fisher,  of 
Yale  University,  says:  "Christ  has  held  the  central 
place  in  the  Cliristian  system  from  the  beginning  un- 
til now.  His  incarnation  and  atonement  have  been 
continually  the  objects  of  faith.  The  Nicene  theol- 
ogy was  the  perfecting  of  a  definition,  not  the  in- 
troduction of  a  new  opinion.  That  theology  has 
been  for  substance  the  creed  of  Greek,  Roman  Cath- 
olic and  Protestant,  the  only  exception  being  sects 
which  professed  to  dissent  from  the  common  belief."^ 
These  cardinal  facts  have  still  a  large  place  and 
power  in  the  Greek  church  in   Russia. 

But  even  though  there  were  nothing  in  this,  Rus- 
sia would  still  be  only  partly  exceptional,  for  the 
reason  that  her  influence  on  the  outside  world  is  not 
great.  It  is  the  Protestant  nations  which  are  most 
vigorous    and    most   aggressive  and   most   potential. 


302  THE  INCREASING  CHRIST 

It  is  hardly  a  figure  of  speech,  therefore,  to  say 
that  in  an  emphatic  sense  the  armies  of  the  earth  to- 
day are  Christ's,  that  the  commerce  of  the  world  is 
Christ's,  that  the  most  efficient  wealth  of  the  time  is 
Christ's,  that  the  laws  which  reach  farthest  and  the 
thrones  which  cast  the  longest  shadow  and  the  public 
opinion  which  is  the  most  commanding  have  on 
them,  one  and  all,  the  sign-manual  of  our  Lord.  I 
know  how  imperfect  the  recognition  of  Christ  is  even 
among  the  most  Christian  people;  what  multitudes  of 
exceptions  can  be  cited  to  the  universality  of  His  rule; 
how  worldliness  dominates  in  the  church,  and  how 
corruption  runs  riot  in  societ}^,  and  how  we  have  to 
hang  our  heads  in  shame  ever}^  little  while  at  the  de- 
velopments made  concerning  men  and  women  thought 
to  be  pure;  but  is  it  not  much  —  avast  increase  in 
power  over  the  world  —  for  Jesus  to  hold  a  place  so 
near  as  He  now  does  to  the  very  heart  of  universal 
control? 

HI.  Consider /urt her  the  relation  which  Christ 
sustains  to  the  heart  of  the  worlds  or  the  inflnence 
He  has  come  to  have  over  the  affections  and  conduct 
of  men. 

Here  we  touch  what  is  central  and  decisive.  The 
dominion  which  Christ  came  to  establish  is  a  do- 
minion of  souls.  In  one  sense  it  matters  little  that 
the  brain  of  the  earth  is  forced  to  acknowledge  the 
validity  of  His  claims,  and  that  nations  wield  their 
authority  and  mold  their  institutions  in  less  or  more 
of  allegiance  to  His  truth,  if  He  does  not  have  a  place 


THE  INCREASING  CHRIST  803 

and  a  growing  place  in  the  affectionate  regards  of 
men,  and  more  and  more  of  control  over  human  ac- 
tions. 

Is  Christ,  then, working  His  way  into  hearts?  Is 
Mis  life  becoming  the  informing  principle  in  the  lives 
of  numbers  ever  growing  larger  and  larger? 

There  are  two  directions  in  which  we  may  look  for 
answer;  and  the  answers  we  shall  find  in  these  di- 
rections seem  to  me  conclusive. 

I.  Following  along  in  the  line  of  the  first  sphere 
of  inquiry,  we  are  led  to  examine  the  matter  of  the 
personal  attachment  of  believers  to  their  Lord  and 
to  ask  whether  men  love  Him  as  they  once  did  and 
whether  the  numbers  of  those  who  love  Him  are  mul- 
tiplying. 

Nothing  is  more  common  than  to  make  disparag- 
ing comparisons  between  the  present  and  the  past. 
Facts  seen  through  the  golden  mists  of  long-gone 
times  become  exaggerated.  We  ma}'  be  too  near  to 
mountains  to  appreciate  their  greatness.  Men  close 
about  us  make  impression  of  their  faults  as  well  as  ex- 
cellencies. When  men  are  at  a  distance  we  lose  the 
sense  of  friction ;  we  are  not  vexed  by  their  eccen- 
tricities; and  their  merits  rise  conspicuous  above  all 
their  limitations  and  imperfections  of  character.  The 
heroism  of  yesterday  seems  alwa3's  of  a  little  finer 
quality  than  any  courage  we  can  find  about  us  in  the 
living  men  and  women  of  to-day.  The  good  of  our 
generation  are  not  quite  so  good  as  the  good  of  the 
generations  gone  by.   It  does  not  seem  to  us  there     is 


304  THE  INCREASING  CHRIST 

SO  much  love,  so  much  purity,  so  much  devotion,  so 
much  energy  of  faith,  so  much  perception  of  right 
and  so  much  uncompromising  fidelit}"  to  duty  in  the 
moral  equipment  of  the  world  as  there  used  to  be. 
So  it  comes  about  that  at  any  given  time  there  is 
more  or  less  of  lamentation  over  the  decline  of  piet3\ 
It  is  so  now. 

To  hear  some  men  talk,  one  would  infer  that  there 
is  ver}'  little  personal  attachment  to  Jesus  and  that 
what  little  there  is,  is  growing  all  the  while  less.  It 
is  forgotten  that  what  we  read  in  the  New  Testament 
is  largely  the  standard  and  not  the  record  of  attain- 
ment in  the  Christian  life,  and  that  so  much  of  what 
is  w'ritten  is  in  the  form  of  counsel  and  exhortation 
and  rebuke.  Judged  by  any  fair  rule,  my  candid 
conviction  is  that  there  never  has  been  a  time  since 
our  Divine  Lord  hung  on  the  cross  at  Calvary  when 
so  many  hearts  were  held  to  Him  by  the  bond  of  a 
love  so  deep  and  sincere  and  abiding,  when  He  was 
so  much  to  such  large  numbers  and  classes  as  at  the 
present  hour.  It  is  only  a  blind  pessimism  in  which 
a  Christian  has  no  right  to  share  that  judges  other- 
wise. 

In  confirmation  of  this  opinion  let  me  quote  words 
spoken  by  Ex-President  Porter  a  few  years  since 
in  a  baccalaureate  sermon.  "The  new  life,"  he 
says,  "and  the  new  rules  of  life  have  steadily  gained 
upon  the  old.  Christendom  is  far  enough  from  be- 
ing thoroughl}^  Christlike  or  Christian  in  its  living 
and  thinking;  but  there  never  was  a  time   when   the 


THE  INCREASING  CHRIS!  305 

aims  and  the  tastes,  the  loves  and  the  hates,  the  prin- 
ciples and  the  maxims  of  the  human  race  were  more 
Christianized  than  they  are  at  the  present  moment. 
Christian  thought  and  Christian  feeling,  Christian 
motives  and  Christian  self-sacrifice,  Christian  purity 
and  refinement,  Christian  manners  and  tastes.  Chris- 
tian philosophy  and  jurisprudence  and  literature 
were  never  more  distinctly  recognized  and  fervently 
loved  than  at  this  moment." 

These  are  the  declarations  of  a  man  competent  to 
judge;  and  they  are  true.  Put  any  generation,  any 
century  of  the  past,  side  bj'  side  with  this  generation 
or  this  century,  and  the  facts  will  be  found  to  war- 
rant the  conclusion.  Large  numbers  are  devoted  to 
Christ  because  they  love  Him  and  delight  in  His 
service. 

It  is  indeed  one  of  the  most  cheering  signs  of  the 
times  that  no  truth  interests  us  like  Christ.  Christ 
and  the  great  doctrine  of  salvation  and  life  through 
Christ  have  an  unmistakable  power  over  souls.  De- 
vout spirits  in  all  the  church  of  God  manifest  an  un- 
wonted eagerness,  through  the  clearest  forms  and  the 
sweetest,  freshest  imagery,  to  be  brought  face  to  face 
with  the  God-Man,  and  made  to  feel  that  they  are  in 
the  breathing  presence  and  under  the  hallowed  spell 
of  the  incarnate  Son.  We  are  told  often  that  this 
age  which  is  pleased  to  call  itself  advanced, 
cultivated  and  all  that,  can  be  expected  to 
have  an  interest  only  in  things  poetic  or  jesthetic 
or    scientific.       It   is    true    men    are     attracted     by 


306  THE  INCREASING  CHRIST 

fine  thought,  finely  articulated.  But  nothing 
takes  hold  on  the  heart  like  the  simple  story  of 
Him  who  suffered  for  us.  Whoever  can  tell  the 
Old,  Old  Story  freshly,  whether  in  pulpit  or  on 
platform  or  out  in  the  open  air  or  through  the  printed 
page,  and  put  the  facts  of  the  life  of  our  Lord 
into  new  form,  and  throw  new  light  upon  what  He 
said  and  did;  whoever  can  give  us  a  new  sense  of 
the  warm  and  sweet  and  measureless  love  He  feels 
for  men,  —  may  be  sure  of  responses  which  will  testify 
to  the  affectionate  regard  and  reverent  loyalty  in 
which  He  is  held.  Mr.  Mood3''s  wonderful  success 
lies  chiefly  in  the  resolute  fidelity  with  which  he  holds 
forth  Christ.  The  one  thing  which  will  live  beyond 
any  peradventure  in  Dr.  Bushnell's  iVattcre  and  Su- 
-pernattiral  is  his  incomparable  chapter  on  Christ. 
The  readiness  with  which  the  market  absorbs  so 
many  lives  of  Christ,  like  Farrar's  and  Eder- 
sheim's,  has  its  explanation  in  part  in  the  eager  inter- 
est with  which  Christian  men  and  women  follow  the 
career  and  dwell  on  every  detail  which  enters  into 
the  record  of  Jesus.  Faces  which  shine  because 
they  have  been  close  to  the  face  of  Jesus  in  the 
mount  are  everywhere  about  us.  Much  as  there  is 
to  pain  and  discourage,  the  hearts  of  His  people  are 
very  near  the  heart  of  their  Lord.  The  breathings 
and  hungerings  of  the  church  are  toward  Christ.  In 
life  and  death,  in  struggles  and  sorrows,  men  cling 
to  Jesus. 

It  is  a  touching  picture,  illustrative  and  typical  of 


THE  INCREASING  CHRIST  307 

what  is  taking  place  with  increasing  frequency  in  the 
earth,  which  Hare  has  given  us  of  the  closing  hours 
of  Baron  Bunsen.  "Many,"  he  said,  "had  endeavored 
to  build  all  kinds  of  bridges  to  eternal  happiness;  but 
he  had  come  to  the  full  conviction  that  all  these 
bridges  must  be  broken  down;  ...  as  there 
was  nothing  to  hold  fast  by  except  the  simple  faith 
in  Christ."  "It  is  sweet  to  die,"  he  added.  "With 
all  feebleness  and  imperfection  I  have  ever  lived,  and 
striven  after  and  willed  the  best  and  noblest  onl}'. 
But  the  best  and  highest  is  to  have  known  Jesus 
Christ." 

2.  Looking  outward  instead  of  inward,  we  find 
the  influence  of  Jesus  to  be  potent  upon  action.  He 
molds  character  and  conduct.  The  best  things  go- 
ing on  in  the  world  may  be  cited  in  evidence. 

There  have  been  eras  in  the  church  which  v;ere 
predominantly  meditative.  Men  loved  Jesus;  but 
they  showed  their  love  not  in  holy  activities,  but  by 
withdrawing  into  cloisters  where  they  could  reflect 
on  Him  in  an  undisturbed  seclusion.  These  men, 
not  a  few  of  them,  rendered  an  enduring  service  to 
mankind;  and  the  lovers  of  devout  literature  will  not 
fail  to  acknowledge  indebtedness  to  them. 

Ours  is  not  such  an  age.  Whatever  may  be  charged 
against  the  present,  it  can  not  truthfully  be  said  that 
its  faith  is  without  works.  The  church  as  well  as 
the  world  is  alive  with  energy.  Jesus  said:  "If  3^e 
love  me,  keep  my  commandments."  Men  are  heed- 
ing the  commandments,  and  under    the   influence  of 


308  THE  INCREASING  CHRIST 

the  teaching  of  Jesus  and  of  His  example  they  are 
doing  such  things  and  in  such  a  large,  wise  way  as 
can  not  be  matched  in  all  history.  Hands  of  helpful- 
ness are  stretched  out  in  a  manner  and  to  an  extent 
wholly  without  precedent. 

Take,  for  instance,  the  general  benevolence  of  our 
modern  days.  There  is  an  established  habit  of  giv- 
ing. The  opulent,  either  while  living  or  at  death, 
are  expected  to  share  some  portion  of  their  wealth 
with  the  public.  The  old  parsimony  of  the  drama  is 
no  longer  common.  There  has  come  to  be  a  tacit 
admission  on  the  part  of  Croesus  that  he  holds  his 
gold  in  trust  for  his  fellow-creatures.  It  is  a  fashion 
to  be  generous  with  money.  The  coming  historian 
who  shall  look  back  and  describe  our  days  will  be 
forced  by  his  materials  to  recognize  the  liberality 
and  the  charity  of  the  age.  For  the  practice  of  giv- 
ing and  of  giving  with  reference  to  the  accomplish- 
ment of  some  good  and  wise  end  is  well-nigh 
universal.  It  sweeps  up  from  the  widow  to  the  mil- 
lionaire. 

It  is  because  the  spirit  and  example  of  Jesus  Christ 
are  making  themselves  felt  more  and  more  in  the 
common  heart  of  humanity.  The  law  of  His  love 
has  touched  men  inwardly,  and  their  hands  open  and 
their  purses  open.  Not  all  who  give  and  give  gen- 
erously and  wisely,  are  pronounced  followers  of  our 
Lord;  but  they  have  felt  His  quickening  breath,  and 
they  have  been  leavened,  though  all  unconsciously, 
by  His  heavenly  disposition. 


THE  INCREASING  CHRIST  309 

The  world  we  live  in  is  still  a  sad  one;  and  the 
cry  of  the  human  pierces  the  ear  at  every  turn;  and 
the  mean  men  are  many  and  the  niggards  are  many 
and  the  heartless  men  whose  one  law  of  life  is  to  get 
but  never  to  give  are  man}';  but  never  before  was 
the  earth  so  bright  with  love,  and  never  before  were 
there  so  many  tokens  to  be  discovered  of  the  tender 
regard  which  man  feels  for  man,  as  in  this  nine- 
teenth century. 

Indeed,  with  schools  for  all  classes  and  colors  and 
conditions  constantly  springing  up;  with  hospitals 
taking  their  places  in  all  well-regulated  communities 
vjs  established  institutions;  with  asylums  opening 
their  doors  to  the  orphaned ;  with  foundling  homes, 
telling  their  woful  tale,  it  is  true,  of  sin  and  misery, 
but  also  of  a  sweet,  beneficent  care;  with  special  pro- 
visions made  so  bountifully  for  the  deaf  and  dumb 
and  blind  and  insane;  with  organization  after  organ- 
ization coming  into  existence,  not  only  to  check 
crime  in  its  beginnings  but  to  encourage  self-help; 
with  such  a  universal  willingness  to  care  for  the 
poor  and  the  reckless  and  the  condemned  even, 
and  to  minister  up  to  the  full  measure  of  abilit}'  and 
requirement,  to  the  unfortunate  of  ever}'  sort;  with 
churches  and  Sunday-schools  and  societies  of  various 
kinds  for  the  propagation  of  Christian  truth  and  the 
exerting  of  Christian  influence  multiplying  as  never 
before,  all  up  and  down  the  land;  and  with  mission- 
aries of  the  cross  in  augmenting  numbers  pressing 
their  way  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  — is  it  not  patent 


310  THE  INCREASING  CHRIST 

that  Jesus  is  an  increasing  moral  force  in  society; 
and  that  men  and  communities  of  men  are  coming 
all  the  time  more  and  more  under  the  constraining 
might  of  His  great,  divine  love? 

If  to  this  list  of  beneficent  activities  there  be  added 
the  new  sense  of  justice  to  which  the  nations  are 
awaking  in  virtue  of  the  influence  of  the  lessons  taught 
by  Jesus,  and  the  clearer  expression  and  the  deeper 
entrenchment  which  it  is  felt  righteousness  ought  to 
have  in  human  laws  and  institutions,  as  seen  in  the 
efforts  to  accord  woman  a  higher  place  in  the  general 
economy  of  life, and  to  reconcile  capital  and  labor 
by  securing  a  more  equitable  distribution  of  the  joint 
products  of  money  and  muscle,  and  the  determined 
and  prodigious  endeavor  which  is  one  of  the  marked 
signs  of  the  times  to  rid  the  world  of  what  is  at  once 
the  vice  and  the  crime  and  the  measureless  curse  of 
intemperance, —  it  will  be  seen  that  nothing  is  lacking 
in  the  way  of  proof  or  of  illustration  that  the  move- 
ment of  Jesus  is  forward,  and  that  as  the  years  mul- 
tiply His  power  advances. 

Now  observe  the  contrast  between  what  Christ  was 
when  John  discoursed  concerning  Him  and  what 
He  is  to-day,  and  it  will  appear  with  what  unflagging 
energy  the  simple  words  which  fell  from  the  Bap- 
tist's lips  have  been  sweeping  on  to  their  fulfillment. 

Then  human  reason  and  conviction  were  against 
Him.  Then  the  power  of  the  earth  was  against  Him. 
Then  the  hearts  of  men  were  against  Him.  A  little 
company  was  ready  to  confess    Him   divine.     A  few 


THE  INCREASING  CHRIST  311 

feeble  followers  who  were  to  forsake  Him  and  flee 
away  in  His  hour  of  need,  made  up  the  sole  earthly 
force  under  His  control.  A  small  band,  hardly  any 
of  whom  understood  Him  fully,  and  some  of  whom 
ever  followed  Him  afar  off,  were  all  who  gave  Him 
their  affections.  The  Head,  the  Hand  a.ud  the  Heart 
of  the  world  stood  in  triple  array  against  Him.  To- 
day it  is  not  too  much  to  afluirm  that  the  highest 
scholarship  and  the  best  learning  are  Christian. 
To-day  the  foremost  nations  on  the  globe  are  Chris- 
tian. To-day  Jesus  is  loved  by  millions  and  millions 
of  hearts  as  is  no  other. 

Still  the  word  is:  ^'' He  mtist  increase.''''  So  He 
will  till  His  glory  fills  the  earth  and  lights  up  the 
heavens  with  a  splendor  which  shall  outshine  the 
brightness  of  the  sun.  —  Amen  and  Amen, 


THE    END. 


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The  Four  Men.  An  Address  delivered  to  tlie  Students  at 
Yale  University.  i6mo.  Popular  Vellum  Series.  .  .  .20 
Cheaper  edition,  10c. ;    per  dozen net.   i.oo 

I.  The  Man  the  World  Sees.  2.  The  Man  Seen  by  the  Per- 
son Who  Knows  Him  Best.  3.  The  Man  Seen  by  Himself. 
4.  The  Man  Whom  God  Sees. 

"  A  better  address  to  young  persons  there  could  hardly  be, 
and  it  could  hardly  have  been  more  effective  in  personal  delivery 
than  it  is  in  print     -  The  Independent. 

Temptation.     A  Talk  to  Young  Men,      i6mo.      Popular 

Vellum  Series z-j 

Cheaper  edition,  loc;    per  dozen net,  i.oo 

"An  earnest  plea  for  closer  relations  with  Christ  to  ni;  ke 
one  strong'  to  resist  evil."— T'/if  Baptist. 


DATE  DUE 


AUb  i     y^\ 


CAVl-ORO 


,„,NTEO>NU 


